Beekeeping in Australia is a commercial industry with around 12,000 registered beekeepers owning over 520,000 hives by 2013-2014.[1] Most are to be found in the eastern mainland states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Beekeepers or apiarists, and their bees, produce honey, beeswax, package bees, queen bee pollen, royal jelly and provide pollination services for fruit trees and a variety of ground crops. These pollination services to agriculture alone are valued at between 8 and 19 billion Australia ..read more

American Foulbrood remains a serious threat to bees worldwide. And that’s why, of all the videos we have produced on beekeeping, this is probably the most important. Some people may find this video distressing, so please watch and share the video with discretion. Other people may think foulbrood and other diseases are not an issue in beekeeping, but in fact it’s probably the most important part of beekeeping that any beekeeper should learn. Without the correct biosecurity practices, bees can suffer and die in their millions. So it’s important you observe the correct procedures outlined in thi ..read more

PIRD is investigating the detection of the exotic pest Red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) discovered on a recently imported sea container located at Forrestfield. Dwarf honeybee are known to be a vector for numerous exotic bee pests, including brood diseases, internal and external mites and bee viruses. The department is calling on the State’s beekeepers to check their hives for the pest. Current situation DPIRD surveillance activities have not detected any further exotic bees other than the original exotic bee swarm. The department has undertaken molecular testing to confirm the bee species ..read more

There’s no denying it: we’re in a long-term relationship… with bees. Recent evidence published in the journal Nature shows that humans have been depending on honey bees for about 9,000 years. Researchers conducted chemical analyses of over 6,000 fragments of pottery revealing the presence of beeswax in pots in Neolithic Europe, the Near East, and North Africa, and therefore our long association with these beneficial insects. Other than utilising bees for honey as a sweetener and food source (the oldest pot fragment in this study was a cooking pot), beeswax served multiple purposes fo ..read more