Hives

Want to keep your own stingless bees? You can start by finding your own nest in the wild and transferring it to a box. Or you can take an easy path and buy your first hive.

Climate

Only warmer climates from around Sydney north are suitable. If you live in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania or southwest Australia, you are unfortunate, as social stingless bees do not occur in your area. I would not recommend sending them there as they would probably die in the winter. However, many solitary species occur there. See here (PDF, 209kb) about encouraging local solitary bee species in your garden.

Species

The easiest species to keep in coastal areas around Brisbane or Sydney is Tetragonula carbonaria, the common local species. I have hives of Tetragonula carbonaria available for sale. I also have a limited number of hives of Tetragonula hockingsi available for sale. This species is more suited to areas north of Brisbane.

Original Australian Trigona hive

An OATH (Original Australian Trigona hive) is good for splitting but not well suited for extracting honey (See below for the design for an OATH).

Honey hive design

The honey hive has an extra compartment on top, a honey “super”, which allows you to remove honey with minimal disruption to the nest. Honey hives are just as suitable as OATHs for splitting or pollination. I recommend honey hives even if you don’t intend to extract honey, as they have better insulation on the top and so are generally better homes for the bees.

Here is a section of a honey hive (made from 2 linear m of 25 x 200 mm softwood). It consists of a lower brood box and an upper honey box. All hive boxes are professionally made, built of hoop pine, nailed and glued, and painted (three coats). It is guaranteed to fit together precisely (important for sealing out natural enemies and climatic extremes), and to last for many years (longer than you will, if you keep it painted!). The sections are held together with plastic strapping.

Pricing

My price is $400 for a honey hive stocked with a strong nucleus of bees.

For local pickup, I have hives available for sale immediately. For orders outside the Brisbane region I may need up to 6 weeks to prepare a hive for postage.

To place an order contact me.

Sending hives by Courier or Post

When mailing hives, I charge a postage and handling fee of $100.

Guarantee

I guarantee the survival of hives for one year as long as they are treated properly. If your hive dies, I will replace it, free of charge, upon return of the dead hive.

Positioning

Positioning your hive is important. They should be kept in a sheltered position. Generally, if you would be comfortable in a position all year round, then the bees probably would be too. A verandah is usually good as they are protected from the elements and you can watch them more easily. They must be protected from direct afternoon sun. They don’t need much space, even a small apartment verandah is sufficient. If you want to put them out in the open, you will need to provide a lid. I can supply a simple but effective lid for $10.

Empty hives

Price for a professionally made empty hive box (honey hive design) is $125.

Want to make your own box?

You will need 25mm thick rough sawn timber. We sell lengths of 25 by 250 hoop pine for $12.50 per lineal meter. Two lineal metres ($25) is enough to make one honey hive. Contact Dan Heard 0413 943 860 to arrange pickup from Taringa, Brisbane.

Registering hives

There is no legal requirement to register hives of native bees in Australia.

How do I extract the sugarbag?

See here to find out how I extract the sugarbag?

Other suppliers

For a list of other suppliers of stingless bees in hives go to the website of the ANBRC: http://www.aussiebee.com.au/buy-stingless-bees.html.