Bees are amazing little creatures that are essential for the pollination of many of our plants. A bonus of keeping bees is you get to harvest and consume your own honey.

I was introduced to the concept of native bee keeping through a friend from work. These amazing little creatures are fabulous little pollinators for the home garden. Being stingless there is no requirement to register your hive and no land size restrictions.

On our block we have four native bee hives at present they are of the Genus: Trigona and Austroplebeia the Binomial name is Trigona carbonaria, Trigona hockingsi and Austroplebeia australis.

We also recently got our first European honey bee hive Apis mellifera ligustica this variety of honey bees is yellow-brown in colour with distinct dark bands. They originated in and around the Appenine Peninsula in Italy. Local council by-laws allow us to have one hive on our block. Our hive will require registering with the Department of Primary Industries.

All going well we will be soon enjoying honey from our own honey bee hive. It may take a while as this is now uncharted territory for us, we have also got involved with the local beekeepers club.