Unseasonal weather hits national honey crop

Updated February 14, 2013 14:04:00

Beekeepers are warning of a smaller honey crop this year as hot and dry weather in the south hits production, with some even struggling to keep their bees alive. The Queensland floods are adding to the problem but the industry says honey in storage should make up for the shortfall.

Source: The World Today | Duration: 3min 11sec

Topics: food-and-beverage, weather, qld, australia


ELEANOR HALL: The severe weather that's hit much of Australia in recent months is taking its toll on honey producers.

Hot, dry weather in the south has hit the food sources for bees and in Queensland hundreds of hives were lost in the floods.

As Rebecca Brice reports.

REBECCA BRICE: Norm Pope is an apiarist from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Last month the state recorded its driest January in 24 years and that's hit his honey production.

NORM POPE: We've only got 30 per cent of our normal crop. We had bees on Mallee and the Mallee was flowing very nice but I put 20 hives where normally I'd put 100 and I got half a box of honey when normally I might have got a box, a box and a half.

REBECCA BRICE: The dry weather restricts flowering.

NORM POPE: There's just no food coming in for the bees and so and unless there's food coming in, pollen and nectar and the pollen is a protein and the nectar is the carbohydrate, the bees won't breed up and there's no new bees to replace the old ones, the hive's diminishing population and there's even not enough food at all, they actually starve to death.

REBECCA BRICE: But it's not just South Australia.

Trevor Weatherhead is from the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council. He says the problems are being felt across the southern states which have experienced severe heat and dry conditions and he says the hot weather also means extra work for the hungry bees.

TREVOR WEATHERHEAD: The bees have to spend a lot of time keeping the hive cool. What they will do, they have a system where they go and collect water and bring it back into the hive and then set up a fanning system, like an air-conditioning system and circulate that air with the moist air through the hive and that way it keeps it cool so they have to have a lot more bees that are keeping the hive cool and those bees can't go out and collect any nectar.

REBECCA BRICE: I understand in some parts of Australia, Victoria in particular, beekeepers have been forced to feed their bees to keep them alive, why do they need to do that?

TREVOR WEATHERHEAD: Uh, yes well, what happens is 'cause they store honey in the hive to keep them going during the periods when there is no honey coming in and if you have prolonged periods where there's no honey coming in, then the beekeepers will have to feed their hives just to keep them alive until the next time when they find some trees or some ground flora that is going to produce honey and they'll shift there. So it's an emergency situation just to keep the bees alive.

REBECCA BRICE: But in Queensland it's been too wet.

TREVOR WEATHERHEAD: Anywhere from about Rockhampton south where there's been a lot of floods, the beekeepers haven't been able to shift their bees around at all. They had to leave them where they were. We've had reports that up to about 300 hives were lost during the floods.

REBECCA BRICE: Spring Gully Foods is one of the nation's top three biggest honey packers. Director Ross Webb says they're only expecting about half of their normal supply out of South Australia this season, with some producers also hit by bushfires.

ROSS WEBB: Some people have been burnt out so they might bring in 200 palicons (phonetic) a year or 100 palicons a year, they might only bring in 10 or 15 for the year so that's how it has affected some of our beekeepers in their areas.

REBECCA BRICE: So do you think there's going to be a shortage?

ROSS WEBB: I think it is going to be tight but we'll get through.

REBECCA BRICE: Nationally the honey crop is expected to be below average this season but the Honey Bee Industry Council says there should be enough in storage to prevent any shortage.

ELEANOR HALL: Rebecca Brice there.