I think people should bee aware....
Bees are not something that aim to scare
A lot of people do not see
Bees add to our economy! (P.S Over $3 billion dollars)
They pollinate our local food
So why is their natural habitat being screwed?
Organic food is better for local bees
So will you take this change up please? (Do it now)
Don't bee worried about the sting!
Think about their life and jobs these creatures bring!
(P.S their also saving your life - don't forget that)

Honeybees are alien to Australia and have had significant impacts on the pollination of native species by displacing native pollinators.

Honeybees rob nectar and pollen from native flowers without pollinating them.

You beat me to it Agronomist.

My first thought was that honeybees are a feral species, & although probably good fro pollinating our feral food crops, have not done anything good for a lot of native flora, & even many exotics.

OK you got me!
So what do I do? Put in a hive to increase bee numbers or kill all bees. You tell me.

Dr Katja Hogendoorn - University of Adelaide had researched on developing native Blue Banded Bees for greenhouse tomato pollination. This was discontinued due to research funds running out.

She was finding that growers could pollinate crops with Australian native bees (known as Blue Branded Bees), instead of having to manually pollinate crops - as use imported bees had been banned within Australia by Government in 2008, on environmental grounds.

One example was tomatoes (pollinated by Blue Branded Bees) were coming out of a larger size (around 15-20% in tomato weight) and with better taste to the fruit - under some of the Doctor's work.

Other Australian native bees are being found to be good in terms of pollination of other fruits and vegetables in various parts of Australia. They may require suitable habitats to live and breed in, so they cannot escape from a greenhouse - or a better natural environment to pollinate - with no use of chemicals - or environmental destruction.

Finally, in terms of general pollination, people can develop "habitat gardens." These involve the planting of local native plants, flowers and tree species within your property, residential or rural to attract wildlife of any type - including bees.

http://bluebandedbees.com/ - shows images of the bees and you can see where the title comes from in terms of the blue element.

Better control of introduced bee species is vital and more research is needed. Christopher Pyne should get a bee-sting wanting to cut science funding.

"OK you got me!
So what do I do? Put in a hive to increase bee numbers or kill all bees. You tell me."

Grow fewer crops that depend on honeybees for pollination. That would reduce the demand for honeybees, reduce the number of honeybee hives in Australia and reduce the probability of more feral hives establishing.

We always have plenty of flowers for bees. Whatever species of bee doesn't matter because increasing the overall food supply helps them all out. Add some plants that the butterflies like. Work it out to cover the seasons.

A supply of fresh water is necessary but is forgotten by most. Tip out once weekly to control mozzies.

It is easy to provide homes for some native bees. Just Google.

I have too much on to do it ATM, but there is a supplier of the (stingless) native bees for honey and I would like to buy a hive or two.

NathanJ, Get a planter box and some water going. Easy to do your bit.

I had a very large native bee nest/hive they had built on the outside of the trunk of one of the cadagi gums in my house windbreak. At the same time I was breeding day lilies.

It wasn't the honeybees that gave me a problem, but the natives. They would be out at very first light, & would have collected every scrap of pollen from dozens of flowers every morning, before even the birds stirred.

I not only had to cover the flower buds I wanted to fertilise, but the ones I wanted to harvest pollen from as well.

I don't think they were fertilisers of the lilies, I never had a single set of seed from flowers otherwise than those I had hand fertilised.

I think we would starve if we depended on them for food crops.

Yes onthebeach, I noticed them at the bird bath, & lots of them on the outside of a cement tank that was weeping. They could gather moisture from very damp concrete, & appeared to need a lot of it in SEQ.

Mine are not stingless, as I found when I lifted a couple out of the middle of the birdbath on a finger tip, but the sting was no more than a pin prick. They are a brown/grey colour with 2 yellow stripes around them, rather like wasp colouring. I have not found a photo of them on the net, but have not tried too hard either.

We are in regular close contact, but get along quite happily using the "I won't trouble you if you don't trouble me system". They must be fairly formidable, as I have not seen anything attacking them, & the nest is undamaged in over 14 years.

Oh no some academic was given money and came to the same conclusion that they all do! We need more research/money. You have to laugh don't you. This is the second thing that Eisenhower (The first was the military industrial complex) warned the world of.
I shall love and cherish all bees regardless of race, gender and ethnicity, not forgetting the GLTG community.
NathanG keep your racism to yourself and take a good long look at yourself tsk tsk tsk!

Hasbeen,

I used to grow a lot of Daylilies myself, along with my other favourites, iris, roses and dahlias. It was truly amazing how fragile Daylily flowers appear yet the plants are robust, requiring little care if supplied with regular litter. Apart from some lemon coloured drifts that I liked for effect, mine were in large beds producing a profusion of colour.

The sad story is that I rented that house for a time and the very first tenant decided to grow vegetables (unsuccessful, even killed the existing veggie bed), destroying the gardens in the process. The yard was a brown wasteland of introduced weeds in such a very short time it was amazing. Sometime you just walk away and put the contract mower in.