Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yeah we get those wasps here, never let the nests get that big though

paper wasps, nasty cranky stingy bity horrible sharp little buggers

In the absence of large amounts of bees I dont mind them - they are high up away from where the kids can get them, plus they are in the pool area so the kids have even less chance of getting close to them

we get them here as well, I was worried at first that they were European wasps but paper wasps have black antenna and euro's have orange/yellow antenna ( or the other way around )

I have no issues with bees or wasps. When it was warmer I was planting and pruning leaves with about 20 or so buzzing around and getting water.

I don't mind them, just be careful not to piss them off.

I had heaps of bees drinking my AP water over summer. I don't mind them, but not around the AP. They get kinda cranky when you disturb them and they are drinking. I really don't want them to decide that the AP is a good spot for water.

We have a beekeeper here who gets honey off our Lucerne plants, last year wasn't the best, very dry spring, but it wasn't as bad as everyone was expecting.

Nova

we have lots of bees, native and honey bees. We have lots of spots for water around the place, so it's not really a problem in the AP. If they happen to fall in :splash: :gulp:

I have pasted pics of the bees that visit my system HERE!

Really? Does that mean I have to give up my mobile?

i'm pretty keen to have a small bee hive. they will help pollenate all my fruit tree's and produce honey for me.
I'll have to check with the local council i guess and see if they have any rules against it, i'd also talk to my neighbours and make sure they were cool with it. in all likely hood they'd probably never even know i had them. we used to keep bees at my parents place.

Go for it, figure it all out and let us all know

I would also love to keep some bees. See if there is a beekeepers club in your area, they could tell you if any permits are needed and probably even supply you with a hive.

Timmy,
bees are great, and easy to keep. There are few restrictions here in VIC, namely the number of hives per property in metro areas is limited.

However there is an annual fee of a few hundred dollars to licence you as a beekeeper. I think this is national.

Bee diseases are a big problem. Also you require annual testing to ensure your bees are not infected. At the first sign of disease, they fumigate you hive

Further to this, you must ensure you have enough food for your hive, as the queen will spawn a baby queen and then swarm off with most of the hive in search of better feeding grounds. It will take some time for the baby queen to repopulate the hive.

You really need to do some research.
Start here: http://www.honeybee.com.au/beeinfo/assn.html

bee hives are readily available in the trading post, and there is no regulation on the purchase or sale of hives or bees. But you must be licenced if you don't want a fine when a shitty neighbour thinks they're not allowed in his suburb.

Hi Timmy,

I'd love to have bees too! Maybe after my AP project is up & running successfully I'll try them.

What sort of flowers will you plant for the bees to forage upon? How many do you need to keep bees happy?

Scottie.

I'm not sure Scottie knows the answers to those questions. but he wants his fruit trees to be pollenated. This will work, but as you have surmised, you need to provide food for the rest of the year when the fruit trees are not blossoming.