Bees in Canberra & ACT: Keeping, Natives and What to Plant

Which bees live here, whether you can keep them, and how the season works in your part of Australia.

Frost-covered beehive on a Canberra winter morning

Stingless bees: not here. Winters are too cold for Tetragonula colonies. Your native bee action is solitary species, which need no hive at all, just flowers and nesting habitat (see below).

The bees you will see in Canberra

Tap any bee for identification details. Images are AI-generated illustrations.

Keeping bees here

Cold-climate beekeeping with a genuine winter shutdown: colonies need full honey supers going into May and should not be opened on frosty mornings. The compensation is a magnificent spring. European wasps are a serious late-summer problem in the ACT, keep entrances reducible. Registration is required; varroa is no longer notifiable in the ACT but monitoring remains best practice.

Registration: required in ACT before your first honey bee hive. Details, costs and links on the state registration guide. Stingless bees never require registration.

Swarm season

October to November, late and fast. If a swarm lands in your garden, here is what to do.

The flying year

November to March. Autumn preparation decides spring survival here more than anywhere except Tasmania.

Plant for your bees

Bees need flowers in every season, and your vegetable garden can supply most of them. Borage, lavender, rosemary, alyssum and sunflowers carry the gaps between crop flowering. The Canberra & ACT grow guide shows exactly what to plant this month, and the free app turns it into a plan.

Keep records the easy way. The Planting Season beekeeping app logs inspections, varroa washes and harvests per hive, with reminders tuned to Canberra & ACT. Free to start.

More bee regions

South East Queensland North Queensland Northern Rivers NSW Sydney & Coastal NSW Melbourne & Victoria Adelaide & SA Perth & WA Canberra & ACT Tasmania Darwin & Top End

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Images on this page are AI-generated illustrations.