Hive mind: collecting intel to help Australia’s honeybees

Hive mind: collecting intel to help Australia’s honeybees

The honeybee industry is one of the most important in Australia’s agricultural sector.  

Not only does it produce honey, it also provides vital pollination services to more than 35 other agricultural industries. Without honeybees, we would not be able to grow almonds or apples. There are also less obvious crops, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and onions, which are totally reliant on bees for seed production.

All told, the honeybee industry contributes A$14 billion to the economy every year. But these important insects are under constant threat. 

It ain’t easy keeping bees

For beekeepers, success year-to-year is largely dependent on factors beyond their control. Changes in climate can lead to shifts in the flowering patterns of flora that enable bees to produce honey. Natural disasters such as bushfires can destroy thousands of colonies as well as vast swathes of native forest – which bees rely upon for foraging.  

And of course, pests and diseases are an ever-present threat, requiring constant surveillance and management to prevent outbreaks. 

Beekeeping is tricky for many reasons, not just Varroa mite. Photo: Jack Fox/ANU

A new era in Australian beekeeping

Around the world, the Varroa mite is the most feared threat to honeybees. This tiny parasite feeds off adult honeybees and larvae and spreads a host of deadly viruses.  

Australia was the last major beekeeping country free from Varroa mite, but that changed in June 2022, when the pest was detected at the Port of Newcastle.  

After a year-long eradication effort, Varroa was officially established in New South Wales (NSW).  

The mite is here to stay, and this is forcing beekeepers to adapt to a new era of beekeeping. 

If left untreated, Varroa infestations could cause widespread colony collapses. Varroa is difficult to treat and greatly increases both the financial and labour costs of running a beekeeping business.  

When the mite arrived in New Zealand back in 2000, more than half of all beekeepers were forced to leave the industry. 

The difficulties of managing Varroa also make it far more labour-intensive and expensive for beekeepers to provide pollination services to numerous horticultural industries.  

Even with biosecurity measures in place, Varroa will gradually spread throughout the eastern states of Australia through the feral bee population. 

Creating buzz

While there are many anecdotes going around about Varroa’s impact on bees and beekeepers in NSW, we don’t yet have enough real data. 

 This is why we’re asking the people that are living through what Varroa is doing to our colonies: beekeepers themselves. 

As part of our work for the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University, we are running the very first Australian Colony Loss Survey. All beekeepers in Australia – whether they have a large-scale commercial operation or keep a single hive as a hobby – are eligible to take part.  

Similar surveys, known as COLOSS (COlony LOSS) are run in over 40 countries around the world, and have yielded crucial data on the primary drivers of colony losses.  

This data is incredibly useful, as it provides beekeepers with reliable information around the factors affecting bee health, preparing them for that they will need to manage to keep their hives happy.  

The more we know about honeybees and how they’re being affected by their environment, the better. Photo: Jack Fox/ANU

Giving bees a chance

While the survey is being run as part of the National Varroa Transition to Management Program, we want to ask beekeepers about more than just Varroa.  

We want to hear about all the factors that contributed to colony losses throughout the 2023-24 season – everything from suspected starvation and competition from other bees to pests and pathogens.

This will help us identify all the major issues that impacted beekeeper businesses. We’ll also be collecting data on seasons and locations, so we can work out how different factors affect beekeepers in different parts of the country.  

Our hope is that once the Australian data is integrated with the international COLOSS surveys, local beekeepers will have an idea of how they stack up compared to others around the world. 

By collecting data from parts of Australia that aren’t yet affected by Varroa, we’ll also get a much better idea of just how much the mite is contributing to colony losses in the places where it is already present.  

This will help beekeepers to prepare for when Varroa does arrive in their area – unfortunately it is a case of ‘when’, rather than ‘if.’  

Knowing more about what our beekeepers and bees are experiencing will also empower governments and decision-makers to create management policies that reflect the needs of the industry. Running the survey annually will ensure that these policies and management strategies can be updated with the most relevant, current information. 

Honeybees are essential for people and the planet. The more we know about how they’re being impacted by their changing environment, the better able we’ll be to support and protect them and the industries and ecosystems they play a part in.