So long as beekeepers do the right thing by undertaking mandatory hive surveillance and conducting regular alcohol washes, president of the Tamworth branch of the NSW Apiarist Association Ray Hull is confident NSW will eventually see an end to the varroa mite.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It has been 12 months since NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) detected the tiny parasitic arthropod - which lives inside bee colonies and feeds off bee larvae and adult bees - during routine surveillance at the Port of Newcastle.
![Tamworth beekeeper Ray Hull is confident the industry can beat varroa mite. Picture by Gareth Gardiner file Tamworth beekeeper Ray Hull is confident the industry can beat varroa mite. Picture by Gareth Gardiner file](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/217877264/e8703343-b01d-467a-ad12-a2b32c47b078.jpg/r0_20_3000_1713_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
To date, the mite has infected 167 premises in NSW mainly in the Hunter Valley and on the Central Coast, with smaller detection sites at Coffs Harbour and Narrabri.
A spokesperson for NSW DPI said the state's varroa mite response was the biggest plant pest response Australia has ever undertaken, and its goal was eradication. In the past year the department has sampled 40,726 hives across NSW and beekeepers have sampled an additional 91,626 hives.
While beekeepers in the blue (general or clean) zone are trying to continue business as normal, those in the red (eradication) zones are at a standstill - and everybody is counting the cost, waiting to see what happens next.
READ ALSO:
At best, those in the blue zones have had to deal with movement restrictions; at worst, those caught in red zones have watched their bees euthanised - a harrowing experience both financially and emotionally as many hives and businesses have been decades in operation.
In both cases, incomes have either been severely impacted or totally lost, and even if the mite problem was fixed tomorrow, Mr Hull said it would take beekeepers months to re-establish their hives.
Providing pollination services for the nut and berry industries is a major source of income for beekeepers, and is only now possible for beekeepers in the blue zone with the granting of special movement permits from authorities.
Mr Hull said hives had been sent into the red zone at Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour earlier in the year to pollinate blueberries.
Small hives are sent because the bees have to be euthanised at the end of the job because they cannot be returned to the blue zone.
- Ray Hull
"Small hives are sent because the bees have to be euthanised at the end of the job because they cannot be returned to the blue zone.
"This arrangement only works if the beekeepers sending the hives into the red zone are paid accordingly for the sacrifice of their hives.
"If there is an outbreak as a result of one of these jobs, the paperwork helps authorities to trace it back to the source hives."
Mr Hull said beekeeping was a nomadic industry, due to the fact hives must follow flowering trees and that means following weather patterns.
NSW apiarists have traditionally moved bee hives between NSW, Queensland and Victoria to chase nectar and pollen sources but now have limited options - since varroa mite their bee hives are no longer able to move interstate while the implementation of exclusion zones within the state also makes internal movement difficult.
![Bees at Ray Hulls property at Kootingal. Picture by Mark Kriedemann file Bees at Ray Hulls property at Kootingal. Picture by Mark Kriedemann file](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/217877264/ce427a14-066d-4a6d-9788-4b9bd8964310.jpg/r0_52_1021_626_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Most flowering tree species only flower every two or three years, so if we miss them this year it will be some time until they next flower and that means we need to look for an alternative food source for the bees," Mr Hull said.
"I would normally head to Thargomindah in Western Queensland or to the NSW Central Coast chasing specific flowering trees which produce different honey types but now I can't do that and that impacts my profitability while it's also not good for bee health.
"I will need to seek alternative flowering options locally, which may only produce half the honey while also supplementing the bees nutrition."
Varroa mite was detected at Narrabri on July 4, and Ray Jones is one of the two commercial beekeepers within that red zone who have been impacted.
Mr Jones lost all his hives located within the Narrabri red zone and while he has some in a blue zone can't operate them as they cannot be brought back to Narrabri.
He said just one mite was found in a collection of hives returned to Narrabri from the Central Coast which raised the alarm locally - and to his knowledge that is the only mite to have been detected at Narrabri.
Mr Jones is now concerned varroa mite is spreading through the feral bee population - which he said has happened in the Hunter and on the Central Coast but not as yet at Narrabri - as that will make control hard if not impossible.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News