Bees play a vital role in our garden by providing essential pollination services. In return, we enjoy better produce and, when in season, amazing honey for our farmstay guests.

The bee in the photo is a European honey bee (Apis mellifera). We have two strains: one purchased from a beekeeper in Launceston and another from a backyard in Hobart. The Hobart colony is now over five years old and remains very friendly, showing less aggression compared to other colonies we’ve had.

We also have a thriving population of wild bumblebees, which are particularly fond of blue flowers—and my blue shirts (photo below). These bumblebees, known as Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), were introduced to Tasmania and were first recorded in 1992. While they do pose a threat to natural ecosystems, they are now a permanent part of the local environment.

In our garden, both European honey bees and bumblebees benefit us by pollinating fruiting crops such as pumpkins, cucumbers, and tomatoes, as well as flowering varieties we save for seed, like the onion flower shown in the photo.

In the past the bees have been a great resource for homeschooling, by providing a micro business model, providing a focus for teaching about insect behaviour and ecology as well as bees themselves from the history of bees, anatomy and there almost unique behaviour as a colony species.