Welcoming bees to Primary School’s native bee hotel “Buzzington Palace”
The Bee hotel is filling up fast!
Students have welcomed the arrival of native bees to the “hotel” (nursery) in the Primary School playground. Native stingless bees have deposited their eggs in 3-5cm hollows, which they have secured with a layer of sand and earth. Bees can deposit several egg cells in each hollow. Before capping off a cell, a mixture of nectar and pollen is left with the egg for the bee to consume when it hatches.
The small holes in some hollows show that some bees have already hatched and left Buzzington Palace! These nesting cells are signs that native blue banded bees and leafcutter bees thrive at our College!
Construction of the native bee hotel was funded by a Woolworths Landcare Grant in 2021. This grant also funded the purchase of specialist books on Australian native bees, which can be borrowed from the College library.