The Australasian Beekeeper

I have been giving this topic a lot of press over the past few months, because I regard the use of pesticides in our environment as the single biggest threat to the survival of beekeeping – witness the recent poisonings and accidental crop spraying affecting bee numbers in the Wide Bay Burnett area in Qld.

To respectfully include the outsider, I have to start with an explanation. Australian Beekeepers are very secretive; they tell you about the honey flow when it is in the drum. When called for, general information sharing is thorough, very effective and quick; there are many Australian Beekeepers that can tell you about honey flows and problems from South Australia to Queensland in overnight conversations.

They cover vast areas of country searching honey. Each Beekeeper has one or two other Beekeepers entrusted with information closer to home. Our Beekeepers in Australia often don't go to meetings because they have bees to run. Mistrust for Authority runs rife, regulations are considered an extra burden, most Beekeepers like to be out on the bees in preference to other duties. The rest, like taxation, the marketing and selling of their honey, wiring frames and filling out forms, is often faithfully left to others. Australian Beekeepers are consistent in answers to questions when you ask them ‘How do you feel about being left out of National Parks?’ or ‘What has the Government done to help you in your plight?’ Beekeepers have left a lot of important decisions in the hands of others, at times to the detriment of the Honey Industry, because they are busy running bees.

Australian Beekeepers are geniuses, from the Hills Hoist to International Beehive Loaders, their methods are respected worldwide; they come up with methods for dealing with everything from the Small hive beetle, twenty-four years drought, the importation of cheaper honeys, EFB, AFB, Chalk Brood, Nosema, failing queens and bees, failing seasons and recent vast floods to start the ball rolling. The remaining Beekeepers in Australia are very knowledgeable and hardy of character. Mostly these Beekeepers know their own beekeeping country and bees like the back of their hand. Australian Beekeepers are standing as the last Mohicians as far as the Varroa Mite is concerned, worldwide.

This article concerns the introduction of NEONICOTINOIDS into Australia, it is written to Australian Beekeepers, in beekeepers’ language. It is understood that over the last 15 years, there have been many reasons why Australian beehive numbers have deteriorated to less than 50% of what they were 20 years ago. The importation of inferior honey, the hive beetle, bee diseases and insecticides have all played a role. Beekeepers have been known to fib about hive numbers too, because they see it as a personal reflection on their ability to keep strong healthy hives and numbers.