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Author Topic: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?  (Read 30035 times)

Offline Lone

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I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« on: January 06, 2012, 11:17:17 am »
Hello,

After a 7 hour drive I've come back home after midnight with the 3 story hive of stingless bees I bought.
Old Fred is away so I put them in his chookshed in town and won't he get a nice surprise!  :)  I thought town would give them the best chance while they settle in and I plan to bring them home when the bloodwood comes out. 

I need all the help and advice I can squeeze out of you all.  First of all, do they like bloodwood?  I don't even know what questions to ask but I don't want to make devastating booboos.  I couldn't manage to hang them up by myself - will they be safe from ants there on the bench?

The bloke showed me inside a couple of his hives, so now I can recognise pollen, brood and honey.  I also learnt that light at night doesn't bother them...so possibly I can keep them on the verandah after all?  I want to keep them out of the rain, but do they prefer shade or our hot NQ sun?  Facing any direction?

I don't want to disturb them for a long time yet because they were a fairly recent split, but I'll monitor how many fly in.

Thanks in advance,

Lone

Offline hardwood

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2012, 02:55:14 pm »
Please keep us informed of all you learn...I'm fascinated! Are they susceptible to mites/SHB?

Scott 
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

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Offline Harpo

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2012, 07:22:53 pm »
Hi Lone,

hhmm funny!! I've had more experience with the native stingless as my Dad has had them since I was 9 and I'm now 40!!!! This is the same bunch of bees - they've swarmed a few times but must have always replaced their queen....

Believe it or not they were there when they bought that house in coastal Redcliffe, Qld - they reside in a besser block wall and we'd hate to think how much honey lurks inside it... Dad loves them as they do such a great job propagating his fruit trees etc and was once mortified when he lit the backyard incinerator ( which was next to the wall ) and started to see honey oozing out from the cracks ....

Their backyard has ants galore - little black ants, green ants, leaf stitcher ants - you name it and they've never looked like harassing them???

Please let me us know how you go with them!!!!

Daina

Offline Lone

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2012, 11:03:17 am »
Hardwood,  my knowledge of them is as big as one of those mites. Actually, we don't have mites here yet. I don't know about SHB but at the seller's apiary he found a deadout which was teeming with grubs.  I thought they might be SHB but there weren't beetles.  I am not good at telling the difference between SHB and waxmoth. I've heard the stingless are pretty aggressive with intruders. Apparently the stingless don't abscond but go down with the hive.  I found it fascinating seeing the "honey bags", the balls of pollen, and the little balls of larvae which are something the size of cooked sago but brown and crunchy. 

That's great, Harpo.  There are always bees in the garden, but I've never been able to find their hideout!  The blighters are tiny. I might have to get a book and start to read some more.  It is risky only having one hive, but they are pretty expensive to buy.  I hope I will be able to split it in the distant future.

I have a lump of wax to melt down.  They use it on the ends of digeridoos.  I wonder what other uses the wax has?

Lone

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2012, 09:38:07 pm »
I have been keeping stingless bees for a long while now. You don't have to worry about SHB, mites or any other pest. About the only thing you need to worry about is the green tree frogs hanging off the front of the hive at night eating any bee that comes to the entrance.
You do need to be careful moving the hives though as they will go back to the original location if you don't move them far enough. Also if you have cadagi trees around, the bees can get a little carried away bringing in seed which can cause the hive to collapse. I have never had this happen though.

What style of hive box did you get? Depending on the type of box you should be able to split it every year and double your hives or collect come honey.

For some reading material you may like the Native Bees of Australia Booklet Series. I have all 10 and read them all the time. Lots of good information. They can be found here: http://www.aussiebee.com.au/infobooklets.html
Shane

Offline Lone

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2012, 11:45:37 pm »
Thanks Shane.  I might have to keep picking your brain for a while.  It's good to know about the green tree frogs.  There is no landing board and I'll put them up high, so it shouldn't be a problem.  (Frogs are more of a nuisance getting into the dog water at night and the dogs play "bob the frog").  I'll only be moving the hive between town and here, 12km away.  That is bad news about the cadagi.  We planted two trees two weeks ago for the other bees.

All I know about the style of box is "homemade and unpainted".  It is a small simple box with plywood between the levels and holes in the ply.  I was told the bottom and top boxes always stay as top and bottom. I don't have the dimensions with me.  Conditions won't be as good for any bees here as where you are, so I guess splitting will be some time off, and I'll need to find out more before I attempt that.  How soon after a split do you check inside?

When I saw them today I thought about water and even though they are in town I wondered how close should they be to a water source?  I put out a dish for them in the next coop.

I'll strongly consider getting the information booklets, but first I might wait and see if they survive the first couple of weeks!

Lone

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2012, 05:13:21 am »
Hi Lone,

re the water source I don't purposely put anything out for my bees. I have a wading pool out in the yard for the dog to play in which I see bees at every now and then but I generally let them find food and water them selves.
The hive you have should have been split at least 3 months ago so if it was going to fail it would have already. I don't think you'll have any problems with it and as they are zero maintenance, just place it somewhere and ignore it :)
Another pest I should have mentioned is ants. I don't think ants will destroy the hive but they are unsightly and the bees will spend time fighting them off. To combat the ants I mount my hives on star pickets and grease the pickets so the ants cant climb up.
Be mindful that it takes a lot of time and effort for these small bees to seal the hive after you open or split so limit opening it up as much as you can. As I said they are pretty much zero maintenance. I might open mine 3-4 times a year which includes splitting. If you do split or pop the top for a look, make sure you tape up the join to help keep out any bugs while they reseal.

Here are some pictures I just took for you.

This hive was split late last year. The picture is just to show what my boxes look like. They are made from cypress pine for good durability and insulation. The boxes are in 3 pieces, Lid, top box and bottom box/base.



Notice the resin between the top and bottom box. The boxes I made weren't very square but they sealed the gaps.



This image is to show the thickness of the timber used to build the box. The thickness is a little over kill for around here but is good for places with high or low temperatures.

Shane

Offline Lone

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2012, 10:08:22 am »
Shane,

Thanks for the great pictures.  Mine is not nearly as thick, just the usual 19 mm I think. What is that extra lid there on the top for?   I have a suspicion I have trigona carbonaria not hockingsi, but I have not seen the two together yet.  The bees here I think are a little smaller.  The bloodwoods are very slowly coming out, just 3 trees in the paddock, but when I'm sure, I'll move the little bees home here.  The split I got was done more recently, but it's my fault as I was getting nervous about another big wet and not being able to travel up there for months, and also missing a once in many year bloodwood flow.

Here is an example of tree frogs swimming in the dog water.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Lone

Offline Lord Viykor

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2012, 06:49:26 pm »
Lone,

Try to get your hands on a book called - Australian Stingless Bees by John Klumpp, it's a great book for any stingless bee keeper.

Also check out the aussiebee website (Australian Native Bee Research Centre) lot of good info there as well.

Offline Country Heart

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2012, 04:58:01 pm »
Just wondering...are stingless bees specific to Australia?

I am a new bee from the US and have never heard of them.

Offline Lone

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2012, 08:02:32 pm »
Yes Country, I believe there are different species of trigona in other countries such as South America.  I don't know which ones are kept domestically.  They are so small you might have seen them and thought they were gnats  :)  Here is some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingless_bee

Lone

Offline Lone

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #11 on: March 06, 2012, 12:42:51 am »
I had a real quick peek inside today.  There is pollen at the bottom, then brood, then honey.

Lone

Offline Wonga

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #12 on: May 23, 2012, 12:12:46 am »
Hey Lone, how does the dog like the frogs in his water? And approximately how far north are you? Thats a lot of frogs

Offline JP

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #13 on: May 23, 2012, 08:53:12 am »
Love this topic. How about some more pictures? Would love to know more about your stingless bees & how you harvest the honey.

Thanks!


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Offline ShaneJ

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #14 on: May 23, 2012, 10:38:35 am »
I'll see if I can dig up some old pictures but unfortunately its coming into winter so wont get any action from them for a while now.
Shane

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2012, 10:45:58 am »
Here a few pictures from inside one of my hives:











Shane

Offline weedyau

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #16 on: May 23, 2012, 04:47:10 pm »
It looks like they have plenty of honey to get through the winter. My natives have been collecting pollen lately. 

Offline Country Heart

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2012, 04:27:20 pm »
How do they go about protecting themselves if they truly are stingless?   :idunno:

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2012, 07:44:04 pm »
How do they go about protecting themselves if they truly are stingless?   :idunno:

They bite  ;)

The bite doesn't feel like much but when you have a hundred or so of them on you, it gets rather irritating.
Shane

Offline JP

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Re: I got my stingless bees. Now what do I do?
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2012, 11:41:29 pm »
Wow! Those pics are insane! So do you get honey from them & how to you go about harvesting it? Crush & strain I would presume but would love for you to expound a bit.

Love the frogs in the dog bowl BTW!


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