John Kinder House, with support from the Auckland Botanic Gardens, has become a botanical pollinator sanctuary for bees and other pollinating insects, to ensure the continuation of plant populations. Native bees are some of the visitors to the garden around the house.

There are 28 species of native bees in New Zealand, of which 27 are endemic – meaning they occur only in New Zealand. They are smaller than honey bees and bumble bees and are generally black.

Native bees do not have hives or produce honey. They live in nests in the ground or in plant material and need flowers close by to collect pollen to feed their larvae. They are among the most critical and effective pollinators of native plants.

More here.