Summary

The project will provide design and description of artificial plantings as resources for use by honeybees and other nectivorous and pollenivorous species in various Australian settings.

The project will consider:
* five physical settings as the focus of the study; domestic gardens, streetscapes, urban open spaces, on-farm plantings and ‘bee-farm’ plantings.
* each physical setting will be considered in relation to three climatic settings; tropical, temperate and cold climate regions.
* four species of useful trees, sgrubs and herbs will be described for each combination of physical x climatic setting.
* It is anticipated that some 150 plant species will be described in a standard format that will include text and pictorial details such as their physical characteristics and requirments, flowering times and durations, productivity with respect to pollen and nectart and other useful innate attributes.

The project output will be in the form of a high quality spiral bound volume of 150-200 pages.

The book will have broad appeal to beekeepers, gardeners, landscape designers, urban planners, local government, farm and land managers.

Program

Honey Bee

Research Organisation

Brueckner Leech

Objective Summary

The project includes a series of objectives that include;
* ensuring adequate resources are availbale to sustain a profitable and productive honeybee industry

* better understanding of the floral resources on which the industry depends

* improved bio-security through researching ‘bee-farms’ reducing the need to transport bees large distances

* increased energy efficiency in the industry through the possibility of reduced transport

* Carbon planting, improving the carbon balance by increased planting of long lived species across the landscape

* increase awareness of the benefits of honeybees to a broader section of the community