Bees are vital to the ecology of our planet and also to our human food supply. The busy insects pollinate over 80 per cent of the world’s flowering plants, according to a 2022 report into native bees by AgriFutures Australia. While the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) gets most of the limelight and credit, there are over 20,000 other bee species across the globe. Research suggests the contribution of wild bees to pollination is even greater than the Apis species.
With bees of all kinds increasingly threatened — by pesticides and other agrichemicals, climate change, habitat loss and varroa mite (a parasite decimating honeybee populations) — native bees have been thrust into the spotlight. Seemingly unaffected by varroa, and viewed as a saving grace for the planet, the native pollinators have become the subject of growing fascination.
Meliponiculture
While there are approximately 1700 native bee species across Australia, only 11 of these live in communal hives within a rigid, complex social structure like the European honeybee, which allows them to be moved about and managed by humans. Known collectively as Meliponini or “social stingless native bees”, they consist of two genera: Tetragonula and Austroplebeia. Across the world, however, there are over 500 different species.
Meliponiculture is the practice of stingless. Coonan, who offers support and advice to others keeping the bees, reveals they’re mostly kept for enjoyment and to help the environment. Along with pollinating edible and ornamental gardens, they’re important pollinators of native plants.
