Pollination
My husband Phil is a macadamia farmer. When he won his third award for producing the highest yield per hectare of macadamia nuts in our farm category, it became obvious that the native bees which we have on our small
(22 hectare) farm play an important role in the pollination process which increases the yield from the macadamia trees.
If you look closely at this video you will see Australian Native Bees carrying pollen to their hive. The cream coloured balls of pollen can be seen on their legs.
On the advice of the Macadamia Processing Company (MPC,) we rented bees from a professional native beekeeper Steve McGinnity (The Australian Native Bee Company) during flowering periods. Our observations tell us that the bees are an important part of our farm’s success. We now have hives of our own which are at the farm all year round.
As the hives prosper the number of bees increases and approximately once each year each hive is split into two which means from time to time we are able to provide bees to others who may wish to benefit from having native bees in their gardens or on their farms.
Native bees forage happily alongside European honey bees. It is beneficial to have both in your garden during pollination times. If you would like some native bees for yourself, please feel free to contact us and we will let you know when we have bees available or where they may be sourced from other services.
Tiny native bees can get right into the centre of small flowers.