Beekeeping – Spotting native bees

Most of us are oblivious to the fact that New Zealand is home to gorgeous native bees, also known as ngāro huruhuru. There are now only 27 species of New Zealand native bees, compared to Australia’s 1500 species. I feel there are two reasons why so many of us are unaware of these darlings. Firstly, native bees bear little resemblance to honeybees or bumble bees, either in behaviour or appearance. Secondly, because New Zealand dedicates so much time, money and publicity to promoting our million-dollar honeybee divas, very little is ever said about other worthy pollinators, including our humble native bees who, by the way, were around with the dinosaurs.

Our ngāro huruhuru are endemic, which means they only occur in Aotearoa and play a vital role in many of our ecosystems by means of effective pollination of our native plants.  Native bees are really very small, generally dark or black in colour and hence often confused with flies or wasps. They are also fast, very flighty and do not settle on flowers for long, making them hard to spot. However, if you persevere you will be in for a treat when you do see one.

Lockdown has given me the opportunity to sit quietly in my garden near a nesting site of ngāro huruhuru, eagerly awaiting their spring emergence and monitoring for the first brave males to poke their heads out. It also got me thinking about the threats my honeybees pose to my newfound native bee site. The fact that native bees are small and solitary means that my honeybees outnumber them both in size and sheer numbers. Furthermore, honeybees can forage further and for longer periods and they can communicate food locations to thousands in the hive, whereas native bees do not forage far from their nesting site.

As a beekeeper, my ponderings have made me realise that we have a lot to answer for if we do not take into consideration the balance required for all pollinators to survive. We must become louder advocates for ngāro huruhuru and strive to learn more about their lifecycles, habitats and, more importantly, how we can help them survive. To date, there is no research on the dire impacts to native bees (or any other pollinators for that matter) caused by hobbyist and commercial beekeepers placing honeybee hives en masse within native habitats, nor data concerning insect habitat loss when said beehives are removed at the end of the honey season. 

For information regarding the importance of ngāro huruhuru, extensive research has been done by Dr Ngaire Hart of Whangarei, and  I am fortunate to have spent time with Ngaire who taught me a lot about them.

Here are some fun facts about our native bees
• Some blow bubbles to evaporate nectar 
• They have short tongues (compared to honeybees)
• They nest underground near each other and create large communities 
• The males die soon after mating
• They are not aggressive and do not fly very far
• They do not produce honey
• They do not suffer from diseases like honeybees 
• They are a vital species for our native ecosystem

It would be great if as many people as possible could send us photos of their encounters with ngāro huruhuru, plus it makes for a great family project to spot how many native bees you have in your garden. Send photos to: btopianz@gmail.com.