THERE is a $90 million industry that quietly hums along, its nocturnal business conducted out of public sight.
The industry is Australian honeybee keeping and without it there would be no almonds, avocados, cucumbers, apples or pumpkins.
“One in every three mouthfuls of food was produced thanks to the work of a beekeeper turning up to a farm to provide pollination services to a grower,” said Queensland Beekeepers’ Association State Secretary Jo Martin.
“Most people are unaware the industry exists because most of its movements are done at night.
“When it's dark, our beekeepers are out there in force migrating hives from forest over farm and back again.
“They move large volumes, often 120 hives at a time and the equivalent of around one million bees.”
She said there had been an exponential growth in beekeeping registrations over the past few years.
Five years ago, there were approximately 4,500 registered beekeepers in Queensland, today’s figures are around 9,043.
“A lot of those beekeepers began with one hive which grew in size,” she said.
“Our biggest concern is many people are self-taught and unaware they need to be registered with the Department of Biosecurity and cognisant of key biosecurity obligations like managing their bees so they don’t become a nuisance, pest or disease threat to other colonies.”
She said varroa mite was the bee industry’s foot and mouth disease equivalent except it wasn’t on nearby foreign shores, it was in Australia.                                               “We feel confident as an industry that the containment response operation is running to plan, the problem is with Queensland beekeepers
who don’t take the threat of varroa as seriously as they should,” she said.
“We’ve had a dedicated campaign running since late June but there just hasn’t been ample testing within the broader population of Queensland beekeepers and the 160,000 hives we manage.”
She said varroa mite affected more than just beekeepers, there would be a knock-on effect when it came to food prices and availability.
Another issue is swarming. Ms Martin said it was the middle of swarming season and she was fielding ‘at least a dozen phone calls a day’ from people reporting them.
Swarming occurs when the weather warms and bees run out of room in their hive. The colony breaks in two with the breakaway group seeking a new habitat.
“A colony of bees could easily be valued at about $500,” she said.
“Professional or commercial beekeepers try to prevent swarming at all costs.
“It would be like a grazier leaving the gate open and cattle walking out to find a new place to live.”
Biosecurity threats and swarming need to be managed efficiently because up to 75 percent of crops gain benefits from bee pollination, with around 35 percent of all crops in Australia needing bees for this purpose.
“We are dealing with a national biosecurity crisis right now,” she said.
“It is probably one of the most challenging jobs out there in primary production because we are working with millions of insects.
“We don’t have fences to keep them contained and it’s difficult to get them to just fly to the one food source.
“You know the saying ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’?, well try doing that with millions of insects.”
Ms Martin said the beekeeping industry was one of the most vulnerable in Australia.
“We are vulnerable to natural disasters like droughts, fires, floods and on top of that we have chemical interactions,” she said.
“A farmer may spray say ten kilometres up the road but if the wind is blowing in the right way ... that’s it for [the bees].
“There is nothing more devastating than working really hard on your bees and maintaining strong colonies for 12 months, then one day everything goes pear shaped and you turn up to your colony and everything is gone.”
She has one request for honey fans and it’s a simple one.
“If you buy honey from a local beekeeper please ask them if they are registered beekeepers,” she said.
“Under the Queensland Biosecurity Act there is an obligation for anyone keeping managed bees in a box to be registered with the department.
“In terms of the national biosecurity crisis, the likes of which we now find ourselves in, it is absolutely imperative we know where beekeepers are so that we have the ability to track and trace effectively.”