Guard

Several weeks ago we got bees. As I mentioned, we’re renting the hive from Hermans Hive Hire, but today a friend (and blipper) asked what sort of bees we had, how big was the hive, and why we had them. Good questions!
 
So I measured the hive. It’s around 450x500, and at this point just one box high, with 9 frames per box.
 
As far as bees, it seems that the predominant bee in New Zealand is the Italian bee, see more on Wikipedia. And yes, that’s what we have. Where did they come from? Well, you can buy them, but our bee guy actually trapped our swarm. A swarm (?) is about $100 to buy, but often they leave a hive due to overcrowding or some other reason, and they look for places to land. He lays traps and has had some success “rehoming” them. Which is what ours are.
 
Now, why did we get them? Well that has a few answers. Firstly, I personally love the idea of bees, despite being a little scared of them, probably like most people. But like Hannah, who is scared, we’re coming to know them as friends. Tonight photographing them a few landed on my arm, I helped them into the hive. They didn’t sting me. They forage up to 5km away and can be quite tired as they come in. Education then is huge part of why we’re doing this, and renting them is a perfect way to learn. One day we’ll have “bees of our own” so I consider this “learner hive”. Our bee man checks the hive every 2 weeks, and is very happy to answer ALL our questions, and yes, we have a few!
 
Are we doing this for pollination? Yes and no. We do have a reasonable vege garden and pollination is good, obviously.  But part of the reason we’re doing this is that the bee population is under pressure; Varroa mite, sprays etc, mean that there are simply less bees. And they are important. Of 100 crop species that provide 90% of our global food supply, 71 are bee-pollinated. So, without bees … less food, less people. Pretty simple.
 
You should get some. They are fun to watch (and photograph) and so very useful!