My birthday by the creek

I had a wonderful birthday surprise a couple of weekends ago.  Matt finished making and filling one of three beautiful raised garden beds for me complete with drip irrigation and a trip to get many vegie seedlings to plant.

 AND...
 Mum and Dad bought me a native bee hive complete with native bees!

I have been coveting a native bee hive for many years but they have been too expensive for me/us to justify. I am such a spoilt girl!!!

I am so excited to be playing my tiny little part in the pollination of the worlds agriculture and food production. Sounds dramatic I know but Australian stingless bees seem to be immune to the much feared and talked about colony collapse faced by the European honey bee world wide. Our teeny tiny native bees may be the answer and potentially will need to be imported around the world to feed (through pollinating crops)  a growing population.  The problem is that Australia's native bees themselves are up against it with many habitats and tree hollows being destroyed through development.  

I have included some pictures of a native bee hive being split into two at a workshop we went to a few months ago.  You can see how cool the spiral structure of the brood inside the hive is - very different to the European honey bee.  The little black specs are the bees.