Discovering Tasmania's native bees

Australia’s native bees keep to themselves and don’t get much media, which is why not many of the Scotch Oakburn Grade 2 students knew much about them before this workshop began.

Photo credit: Landcare Tasmania network coordinator (north) Sarah Abbott.

Luckily, entomologists and native bee experts Yolanda Hanusch and Tristan Skerratt were on hand to introduce them to these often-overlooked insects. The students learned what native bees look like, where they live, and what they eat, then split into groups to jump into the two main activities of the day.

The first involved heading out into the school’s beautiful garden to see which native bee species were hanging about. A wide range of colourful flowering plants were in full bloom and there was sunshine aplenty, making it easy to find different native bees going about their business.  

Photo credit: Landcare Tasmania network coordinator (north) Sarah Abbott.

Students helped spot bees for their accompanying entomologist to catch, and everyone in the group got a good, close look at each specimen. One large, white-flowering hedge was particularly well-liked by the bees, which buzzed around it more than any other plant. It was noted by Tristan that the addition of more native plants to the school’s garden might bring in even more native bee species.

Photo credit: Landcare Tasmania network coordinator (north) Sarah Abbott.

The second key activity of the workshop was making native bee hotels. Since native bees live in very different homes to honey bees, the students first learned what makes a great place for a native bee to raise its babies, before they started construction.

Each student made a small native bee hotel that could be hung from a branch or placed in a protected spot in a garden, and one group revisited the school’s garden to leave their hotels in carefully selected bee-friendly places.

 

Enthusiastic feedback

“I thought it was great – we absolutely loved it.”  - teacher

“The Batman bee is my new favourite animal!” - student

 

Thank you!

Landcare would like to thank the staff and students of Scotch Oakburn College’s junior school for participating so enthusiastically in this event, and the all-knowing Tristan Skerratt and Yolanda Hanusch for their native bee expertise.

This event is part of Landcare Tasmania’s Citizen Science Program, proudly supported by the JM Roberts Trust.