Did you know there are more than 1700 species of native bees in Australia? They do an enormous amount of work pollinating our native plants and have evolved with them to live in all areas of the landscape.

Did you also know that only 11 of our native bees make honey, so our entire honey industry is based on an import from Europe!

The hard working, non-native European Honey Bee was imported with the early colonists into Australia almost 200 years ago. We have benefited ever since with fresh honey and pollination services for the many horticultural and agricultural plants we have also brought in from other countries.

However, like many of our imported species, the European honey bee has escaped it’s intended role and become a feral pest in the hollows and homes usually occupied by our native wildlife.

European honey bees colonise tree hollows and particularly like the artificial nestboxes we install to assist threatened native species like the Brush-tailed Phascogale and Squirrel glider. When monitoring our artificial nestboxes, Parklands rangers arrange for the removal of invading feral bees and clean out any honeycomb to allow native occupants to move back in.

Please let us know if you come across nestboxes with bees.  Bees can be moved back into honey production hives, with some local bee-keepers happy to remove bees from boxes by relocating the Queen bee into other hive boxes. Message or call us on 0427 926 282

In the meantime, find out more about native bees at Aussie Bee , the Australian Native Bee Research Centre.