Buzzy bees
Some time ago ‘On the Brink’ looked at the various native bee species. In this edition it is the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and its impact upon the environment that is being looked at. The European honey bee was introduced into Australia in 1822. While it was brought to Australia for honey production, bees quickly established feral hives across Australia.
We tend to think of bees as a ‘good’ species. They pollinate our crops and provide us with honey. While this is true, it must be remembered that our native flora have evolved without the European honey bee. Native plants have different pollinators: native bees, wasps, birds, bats, and even possums. The flower structures of many native plants mean that bees cannot feed from them. Some plant species have very specific pollinators. For example, some orchids rely on particular wasp species for pollination. Nothing except that wasp can successfully pollinate that orchid. Bees literally do not get a look in.
Some of our native plants need to be vibrated to release their pollen. Some native bees have evolved to vibrate the flowers in a process called buzz pollination. European bees do not buzz pollinate and cannot pollinate these plants.
Bees can feed off eucalypts and some other tree species. In these cases, the bees are in direct competition with the trees’ natural pollinators. The European honey bee is larger and more aggressive than the native species (although the blue striped bee is a similar size). If nectar or pollen is in short supply the European bees can out-compete native bees, fighting their way onto the flowers.
The European honey bee also out-breeds native species. Their hives will contain many thousands of bees with the queen laying up to 2,000 eggs each day, whereas native bees are either solitary or live in small colonies and lay far fewer eggs.
A major ecological problem of feral bees is that they will leave their hive to take up residence elsewhere, usually in a tree hollow. There are two causes of this. If bees in a domestic hive find it unsuitable, they will simply up and leave (abscond). Causes of absconding can be lack of food, the hive getting too hot (or cold) or being attacked by ants or other insects. Should a hive become crowded, the worker bees will raise new queens. The old queen will leave the hive with a swarm of workers to colonise a new hive. It can be seen as the way bees reproduce. Again, tree hollows are a favoured site for their new hives. The problem is that by using tree hollows the bees are depriving native species of their nesting hollows. Bees will even settle in nesting boxes (many native species will not use a hollow or nesting box once it has had bees in it). While most feral bees have swarmed from hives of other feral bees, the bees’ ancestries will eventually lead back to domestic hives.
In recent times there has been a rise in amateur bee-keeping with people getting a hive or two for their gardens. Unfortunately, this has led to a rise in absconding or swarming bees due to hives not being monitored or well cared for. Some people saw their hives as a ‘set and forget’ thing and others felt intimidated by the idea of opening their hives to check on their bees. My advice is to have a docile queen. This makes the whole process much easier. With really good queen it may even be possible to open and work on the hive without a suit, veil or gloves.
While The European honey bee is essential for the pollination of many of our introduced plants and food crops, the native flora can exist quite well (and in some case better) without it.
