One of Australia’s smallest native stingless bees, the Tetragonula Clypearis is generally found in the tropics of Far North Queensland. They love to make their nests in small wall cavities of houses or sometimes in brickwork. At only 3.5mm in length the Tetragonula Clypearis bees are visibly smaller than our other species of native bee. The workers also have a burnt orange-brown abdomen.
With our ongoing love-affair with native stingless bees, we sourced our own colony of Tetragonula Clypearis some time ago and have been watching them thrive and grow. With our existing colony at the point of filling their current hive, we needed to build another suitable hive to duplicate the colony and ensure they didn’t self-split and take up residence in an unwanted location.
With this in mind, Clay set his mind to build the perfect box for our newest species of native bees. Knowing their needs were different to our regular Tetragonula Carbonaria, Tetragonula Hockingsii and Austroplebia Australis, he needed to ensure the box met the specific requirements of this species – not to mention, it had to look sexy because it was intended to be my Christmas present and a feature in our yard.
With the help of experienced native bee keeper Dave Jenson (Cairns), Clay worked on designing and building the most spectacular tower hive. The hive was inspired by Brazilian bee keeper Ailton Fontana.
The Tower Hive
The most important requirement for accommodating this tropical species of native bee in South East Queensland was insulation. It’s a little cooler in our sub-tropical area of Australia for a couple of months of the year so it was important to cater for this.
Now for those of you who are interested in woodwork or building a similar box for yourself, please read on. If you’re not interested in the specs, scroll to the photos at the end for the piece-de-resistance.
The design:
The front, back and sides of the tower hive box are 35mm kiln dried Spotted Gum timber.
Top and bottom plates are also 35mm kiln dried Red Gum timber.
Internal brood chamber slide outs (for future splitting/brood transfer – a very gentle process) made from 6mm kiln dried New Guinea Rosewood timber.
Dimensions: Front and rear face 135mm x 535mm
Side face 205mm x 535mm
Total brood capacity is 2L.
Weight: heavy!!!!
A 4mm Perspex plate has been fitted for viewing.
For extra insulation, over the viewing window, a single piece of 65 x 45mm kiln dried Jarra is used. This piece is snugly fitted and two cabinet flush pulls were installed to allow it to be removed easily.
Apart from the entrance hole, there are two ventilation holes; one at the top and one at the bottom of the hive to ensure adequate air circulation. These are fitted with wire mesh to prevent predators.
A bracket was fitted to the top of the hive to allow it to be hung from the side of the house. All fittings are stainless steel to improve their weather endurance and the external hive is finished with Timber Grain Ultradeck stain for extra durability. The hive is located under the eaves of our house so it is well protected from weather.
Species and logo laser etched 
Rear of hive 
Side view- stainless steel bottle screws 
Top view 
Bracket to secure hive 
Bottom view – ventilation hole 
Rear view 
Laser etching over entrance hole 
Internal view 
Internal cavity – brood chambers 
With insulation fitted. Note the ventilation hole Finished product
Duplicating the hive
To establish the colony in the new hive box, Clay transferred brood from our existing tower hive with the Clypearis species into three separate chambers of our new tower hive. Much to our pleasure, the existing queen was transferred with the brood into the new hive box (the old hive box will re-queen in time).
To be honest, the process was a bit of an experiment because we were unsure whether the existing queen would take to laying eggs across the three brood chambers or whether she would just remain in one.
We have since observed the queen traversing between all three chambers containing brood. There are now also open cells within each brood chamber indicating she is working across the three separate areas and they are provisioning the colony well with food stores of honey and pollen pots. Winning!! So far, the girls are thriving in their new hive box and we are tickled pink with the outcome. A huge thanks to Dave Jenson from Cairns for his guidance, mentorship and endless phone calls.
I’ll eventually post some video of the inside of the hive including the queen doing her inspections so watch this space.
Jac
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