Even in the digital age, books continue to be an important source of information. Those engrossed in an area of special interest to them still like to have a good reference book. It seems there is something comforting about holding a book.
This is no different for Urban Wildlife Gardeners. They still like to include books in their reference material, and The Australian Bee Book by Tim Heard is definitely a go to reference for anyone thinking of introducing native stingless bees into their gardens.
As the inside back cover tells us, Dr Tim Heard is an entomologist, an ex-CSIRO research scientist, and long-term keeper and promoter of Australia’s native stingless bees and native bees in general.
The full colour book is nearly 250 pages in length and is truly comprehensive; It includes advice on bee biology, behaviour, nesting and social life and foraging. For those contemplating launching out into native bee keeping it includes advice on how to build your own hive, how to transfer a bee colony, and how to manage your hive.
You will also learn about using stingless bees for pollination, which of course is extremely important for wildlife gardeners and those wishing to enhance biodiversity.
The book is so far reaching in its content to be able to give a full idea of what is covered in this brief review. However, it is arranged into three parts; Part 1 Understanding Bees, Part 2 Keeping hives of stingless bees, and Part 3 Bees for pollination.
So, if you are an Urban Wildlife Gardener looking to increase biodiversity and pollination via native bees then this is the book for you
Locally the book can be purchased from Noosa Landcare’s Hinter Hub shop in Pomona at around $35.
And, as we have indicated above, Noosa UWG will be organising a workshop focussed on dividing a stingless bee hive on Sunday 16th October 2022 with details in the next Newsletter.
Tony Haslam
