Australia's decision to abandon efforts to eradicate varroa mite is triggering an exodus of backyard and hobby beekeepers.
Key points:
- Some bee clubs in varroa hotspots have already lost half their members
- The trend is expected to play out nationally
- Honey production and pollination services are expected to recover
Thousands of beekeepers across the country are expected to sell their bee smokers and hang up their bee suits, with an exodus already happening in varroa mite hotspots in New South Wales.
The destructive parasite was first discovered further north at the Port of Newcastle, in the Hunter Valley, in June last year.
Beekeeper and Central Coast Bee Club member Barbara Elkins said a lot of beekeepers had found the last year too difficult and distressing.
"Our beekeeping club was 365 people. We've lost more than half of them," she said.
"They're upset and they're old, like me, and thinking 'I can't do this anymore'.
"There are much more inspections going on, much bigger fines if you don't do it properly, and there'll be some chemicals to put in the hive."
Ms Elkins' bees did not have varroa mite but her hives were destroyed anyway as they were in a red eradication zone.
"You kind of get to know them. They're a bit like children, very individual, and you kind of love them," she said.
"I had to sit there in my dining room and watch them being killed in the night."
In response to losing their hives, Ms Elkins said beekeepers had become depressed, angry, even "silly", and some had threatened to hide their hives to avoid seeing them killed.
A lot of hives destroyed
NSW Amateur Beekeepers Association president Lamorna Osborne said about a quarter of the association's members had to euthanase hives as part of the varroa mite response.
"Of the 4,500 amateur beekeepers, it's probably about 1,000 people that have had their hives euthanased," she said.
Most of the bees in areas like the Hunter Valley, Kempsey, and the Central Coast were destroyed, and many beekeepers will not try and restock.
Dr Osborne said the rising costs and testing requirements will make it unattractive for some amateur beekeepers.
"I think the costs and the time consuming nature of these tests is going to deter a lot of them," she said.
Hope for some beekeepers
Stuart and Cedar Anderson revolutionised backyard beekeeping with their Flow Hive invention eight years ago.
They estimate hundreds of Flow Hive owners had to euthanise their hives as part of the varroa mite response, but hope those beekeepers will restock their colonies.
"They had to destroy the brood section, which is usually the bottom box, but they didn't have to destroy the Flow super," Stuart Anderson said.
"The colony itself was destroyed but the gear which is the more expensive part of the hive — as far as our customers are concerned, the flow frames themselves — didn't have to get destroyed.
"So we hope we can encourage them back into beekeeping, and we know there's many that are keen because we're getting requests from those now orange zones — 'when can I keep bees again?'"
Cedar Anderson hopes people continue to keep bees.
"We now have an agricultural system that relies on this species Apis mellifera, the European honeybee, which does an extraordinary amount of pollination," he said.
"A single hive can pollinate 50 million flowers in a day and we just don't have anything to replace that.
"It's going to be more important than ever to be a beekeeper and look after your bees."
Industry will rebound
Southern Cross University bee expert Dr Cooper Schouten said research from the US and New Zealand shows the transition will be difficult but the industry as a whole will rebound.
He expects costs will rise 30 per cent for the average Australia bee business.
"The hardest hit beekeepers are hobbyist beekeepers and semi commercial operators," he said.
He said while the number of beekeepers will decline honey production should hold up.
That is because about 80 per cent of Australia's bee colonies are owned by just seven per cent of beekeepers and Dr Schouten said they were very good at caring for bees and producing honey.
"Beekeepers are highly skilled, they're out there every day, they're managing bees, they're learning new things and adapting to what's going on in the environment. And that'll happen here in Australia and in the context of varroa," he said.
"They're able to recoup those losses by making more bees, making nucs [nucleus colonies], making queens."
Beekeepers keeping busy
Kempsey beekeeper Stephen Hutson is just happy he does not have to destroy his bees and is not deterred by added costs and requirements.
"As an amateur beekeeper I'm ecstatic that we've finally got a chance to undertake management of our bees to keep them alive," he said.
He thinks it would hit some people in the hip pocket, but he was hopeful there would be a resurgence of interest.
"People have pets, and if you treat the cost of treatment and the time that you spend with them as you do with other pets then it's not going to be a problem," Mr Hutson said.
He believes people would still want to keep bees.
"There's a whole wave of new people, well educated, coming into rural areas and fascinated by things like bees. They don't care whether it makes money or not," he said.
"To be a good steward on the planet, I think, is part of that process, and without bees there's a lot of things that will never produce fruit."