Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish writes:
I doubt it. The blue arsed bee (don't know it's proper name) nests in
our brick wall. European honey bees use things like tree hollows (and
compete for space and food with possums).

While the mortar bee (I'm not sure that I'm correct with the name) is a
native bee, it is a solitary bee, and not what people usually mean when
speaking of the native honey bee. The latter is a tiny insect that lives
in a colony of thousands, and most people would mistake it for a small fly.
In size it is something like that of a hover fly.

Strangely, there is a push among some horticulturists for the
introduction of the European bumblebee even though the native blue
arsed bee is a much more effective pollinator.

I have heard Tasmanian farmers say that a big advantage of the Euro bumble
bee is that it continues to work even in dull showery weather, weather
that sees the introduced honeybee down tools. I haven't noticed whether
the blue-and-black-striped bee is an all-weather worker, have you? Also,
have you got more than just one or two of them nesting in your mortar?

Question to Len: do the native honey bees continue flying on dull, showery
days?
--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)

John,
The small native bees like it warmer. In winter, they basically shut down,
their entrance is gummed up with propolis / tree sap & stuff and they reopen
once the weather warms up again. They do open up if you have a warm spell in
the cooler months too. The thing is with these bees they are subsistence
only so there is no practical or real harvesting of their honey. Even if
you tried, the structure of their nests do not lend themselves to easy
access. They just lump together the comb in sacs in no real given order so
there may be honey, pollen and brood all in the same area like a fruitcake
really - in contrast to the euro bees which have a bit more order.
There is a tree just up the street from me with a colony of the natives,
they face north and are doing really well. I stop and show my kids the
activity whan we walk to / from school. Great little bugs. My Dad also has
a hive, they have been there for 25 or more years in a log rescued from a
boiler fire wood heap.
Jock

"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
| Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish writes:
| I doubt it. The blue arsed bee (don't know it's proper name) nests in
| our brick wall. European honey bees use things like tree hollows (and
| compete for space and food with possums).
|
| While the mortar bee (I'm not sure that I'm correct with the name) is a
| native bee, it is a solitary bee, and not what people usually mean when
| speaking of the native honey bee. The latter is a tiny insect that lives
| in a colony of thousands, and most people would mistake it for a small
fly.
| In size it is something like that of a hover fly.
|
| Strangely, there is a push among some horticulturists for the
| introduction of the European bumblebee even though the native blue
| arsed bee is a much more effective pollinator.
|
| I have heard Tasmanian farmers say that a big advantage of the Euro bumble
| bee is that it continues to work even in dull showery weather, weather
| that sees the introduced honeybee down tools. I haven't noticed whether
| the blue-and-black-striped bee is an all-weather worker, have you? Also,
| have you got more than just one or two of them nesting in your mortar?
|
| Question to Len: do the native honey bees continue flying on dull, showery
| days?
| --
| John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)
|

"Jock" writes:
The small native bees like it warmer. In winter, they basically shut down,
their entrance is gummed up with propolis / tree sap & stuff and they reopen
once the weather warms up again. They do open up if you have a warm spell in
the cooler months too. The thing is with these bees they are subsistence
only so there is no practical or real harvesting of their honey. Even if
you tried, the structure of their nests do not lend themselves to easy
access. They just lump together the comb in sacs in no real given order so

Thanks for that info, Jock. It sounds like native bees' dislike of cold
weather is the reason that many of our native plants have come to rely on
bats or birds to carry out their pollination. A big advantage of keeping
native bees would seem to be that not only are they stingless, but they
would go unnoticed in the city---whereas keeping a hive of European bees
would be an invitation to trouble from neighbours unless you had a cliff
edge location or the penthouse suite in some high rise. I've seen a health
food shop with a hive of bees kept indoors for public exhibition; the bees
entered the building via a tiny hole and crawled through a transparent
plastic pipe fixed to the wall to reach their hive.

| I have heard Tasmanian farmers say that a big advantage of the Euro bumble
| bee is that it continues to work even in dull showery weather, weather
| that sees the introduced honeybee down tools. I haven't noticed whether
| the blue-and-black-striped bee is an all-weather worker, have you? Also,
| have you got more than just one or two of them nesting in your mortar?

The antics of the Euro bumble bee are captivating.
--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)