How to Care for your Nest
of Australian Stingless Bees

How to buy a nest or box of stingless bees

Hive propagation service

A nest or box of Australian stingless bees makes a wonderful addition to your backyard - whether you are a gardener, a small-crop grower or simply a lover of Australian wildlife. They will help to pollinate your treasured plants. They will supply you with a taste of their unique honey. They have interesting social behaviour like the commercial honey bees, but they are stingless and easier to handle. Best of all, they are "true blue" Australian bees. Your observations of their behaviour could help unravel some of the many remaining mysteries of their secret lives within the nest.

Note: Stingless bees are tropical species that only occur in the warmer parts of Australia.

Keeping a Nest in its Original Log

The safest way to keep a nest of stingless bees is to leave it in its natural log. Even in experienced hands, about one third of nests can die from the disruption of being transferred to a box.

The nest should be sited in a warm spot in the garden, preferably with morning sun. However, they need protection from extreme heat and from cold winds. The bees require flowers for pollen and nectar within about 100 metres of the nest. They will happily use a wide variety of native and introduced flowers. In hot weather, a supply of water near the nest is also desirable. Also remember that household and garden insecticides can kill bees. Take great care not to let your nest's foraging bees come in contact with insecticides.

The ends of the log should be sealed with caps of timber or metal to keep out rain and invading insects. Stingless bees defend their nest against predator insects by sealing up all nest openings, other than the nest entrance, with wax and resin. These defences may be broken when the nest section is removed from the tree. If ants are in the area, the nest should be placed on a brick standing in a shallow container of water and detergent until the bees have fully repaired all damage to their nest structure. Any cuts in the log should also be sealed with materials such as masking tape or commercial beeswax.

A weak or damaged nest can also be attacked by some other specific predators: tiny black Phorid flies, larger Syrphid flies which look like wasps with forked antennae, and South African Small Hive Beetles. These all love to lay their eggs on the honey and pollen stores. However, only a weak nest would allow the grubs to multiply to damaging levels. Again it is important to help the bees seal up any gaps in their nest defences as quickly as possible.

Instructions on how to build several ingenious traps for protecting hives against Phorid flies are described in Tips on Stingless Beekeeping (Volume 3).


Want to know more?

For more practical information and tips on how to keep stingless bees, read the following bookets from the Native Bees of Australia series:

-- Nests of Australian Stingless Bees

-- Behaviour of Australian Stingless Bees

-- How to Recognise the Different Types of Australian Stingless Bees

-- Keeping Australian Stingless Bees in a Log or Box

Boxing and Splitting Hives -- A Complete Do it Yourself Guide for Stingless Bee Keepers

Tips on Stingless Beekeeping by Australian Beekeepers (Volumes 1, 2 and 2)

Full details on these native bee booklets

© 1997-2011 Australian Native Bee Research Centre
PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754, Australia
Fax: 02-4576 1196