Many years later and I have the method sussed now.
Now commonly called an "education" it is a simple method of propagation/farming Australian native bees.
Find a hive in a tree. If there are multiple entrances block all of them except the main one. Tree sap/resin/clay/mud/gaffer tape, whatever you have at hand.
Build 2x small square wooden boxes, drill a ~12mm hole in two opposite ends and connect them.
You now have a single shoe box size rectangular box that you can look through from one side all the way down the middle and out the other end.
AT NIGHT WHEN THEY ARE SLEEPING, attach the box to the tree hive and block all escape routes except the box.
The next morning bees leave the tree hive, they are forced to travel through the box to compartment one, then compartment two, then they leave and forage. On return a small number will not be able to figure out how to enter and they will unfortunately die.
This number is insignificant and due to the very short life of these foragers anyway within a week the all rest will have it sussed.
When they return they travel through compartment two, then compartment one, then back into the tree hive where their honey larvae and queen lives.
They have no other options, and this is a long tedious journey for them to make.
Because of this they will then move a large % of bees permanently into the box as the route is shorter.
They will also increase their numbers to fill the new hive space.
In 6-12months time you can remove the box, harvest a small jar of honey for yourself and place that now colonized hive box in a new area. The bees inside will make a new queen and now you have a new bee farm.
A month later you can place a whole new box on the tree hive and you can place another whole new box on the hive you have removed as well.
In 6-12months you will have 2 more hives to split and harvest from.
Next time you will have 4hives.
The original tree, the first hive box, and now two more hive boxes as well.
Split them again now you have 8hives.
The original tree, the first hive, two second generation, and four third generations.
You can then sell or give away excess hives for other folks to do the same.
Every native bee hive only makes a small amount of honey, but it is awesome, it is free if you scavenge timber, the bees don't sting, and you never remove or harm the original hive in nature.
You are actually increasing their numbers!
With the massive amount of dramas impacting on the European bees, these guys are a great sustainable pollination alternative.
With "education" propagation it is a sustainable low impact way to farm a little honey while helping increase pollination in your local area.
If the whole hive collapse issue continues with European honey bees, lots of folks growing these guys will help ensure our crops survive.
If you are Aussie based I urge you give it a crack.
If you aren't AU based I urge you to investigate your local insect population as many Aussie folks don't realize that these "little black flies" are actually a native bee that makes honey.
Maybe you have a similarly unexploited species in your country/region, that no-one else has bothered really looking into?
Honey hidden inside a tree isn't visible, and from the outside it just looks like greasy black flies and tree resin.
Discovering a new sustainable source of honey/sugars is a pretty major thing for humanity, and that's gotta be worth a few hours cruising around the bush looking at cool little mini critters...
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Topic: Australian native stingless bees (Read 14015 times)