Native Australian Bees Polenating Colchicum

steven hart hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com
Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:57:27 PDT
Hi everyone, i thought some of u might like this sort of thing... I do :-)

Native Australian bees are small about 5 to 6mm long, they have no sting &
produce a strong sugar rich honey. Although they can be hived successfully,
hives are only about 30cm cubed & the bees do not frame at all so a central
nuclease ball of networked honeycomb is created by the bees. Harvest is
simply done by breaking off small pieces of honeycomb to be squeezed for
honey or used as a garnish on elaborate deserts etc

The Australian Aboriginals valued the honey for food & medicinal purposes so
much, they sometimes tied a small feather to a tiny bee & follow it home
through miles of bush.

Pollination with some species is incredibly successful thanks to these
little workers who often carry half the load of a European bee, who greatly
compete for the Native Bees food, their tiny black shining bodies get
totally covered with bright yellow pollen sometimes & they scurry about
getting it every were in a frenzy to find every last grain. But i have found
some larger species like hippeastrum they are so ifficiont they remove every
last bit of pollen & will even leave plants you have pollinated completely
void as if you had never pollinated them in the first place.


http://flickr.com/photos/67167299@N04/…



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