, “An old bee farm,” ,
Warrandyte, Victoria (
National Gallery of Victoria)
19th-century Australian farmers wishing to diversify and develop additional sources of income in the nineteenth century sometimes turned to bee-keeping as a side-line. A row of gin cases on a rural property was a sign that bee-farming was in progress as they were frequently reused as bee hives. Bee-keeping remained largely a part-time activity for farmers and people living on the outskirts of towns and cities until dedicated full-time beekeepers began to emerge. The export of honey may have started in 1845 when an experimental shipment of honey and honeycomb was shipped from New South Wales to Britain in wooden casks. In 1895, of honey was exported from Victoria alone. Some 90% of that went to the United Kingdom. The British author
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) visited Australia in 1871 and commented on the popularity of honey as a favourite food. The
Langstroth hive was in use by 1872. It led to greater honey production and less disease in hives. The smoker developed by
Moses Quinby to pacify bees was known by at least 1895. The South Australian Beekeepers Society was established in 1884 and a beekeeper’s association was active in Victoria in the same year. The Queensland Beekeeper’s Association was meeting by 1886. The Victorian Apiarists Association started in 1900.
20th-century (
Eucryphia Lucida) trees provide a popular type of Australian honey In February 1903,
Victorian bee-farmer Thomas Bolton (1863–1928) questioned the wisdom of clearing the forest in the
Dunkeld area of the
Western District. He said the blossom from the trees was annually converted by bees into honey worth £150 per of forest. The land was being cleared to create grazing pastures for sheep which he claimed annually returned just £80 per . Bolton sent a test shipment of honey to China early in the 20th century. He reported, “The ships company thought so highly of his honey that empty cases were they only part of the consignment left when the ship reached port.” In 1921–22, Australia produced of honey. Honey exports that year were worth
£A84,417. Beeswax was also exported. Drawbacks to beekeeping in Australia include
bushfires, frequent
droughts and the tendency for beeswax to melt in very hot conditions. The distance from export markets is another issue. So too is the use of pesticides in agriculture. The production of honey and bees-wax fluctuates greatly and is determined by the flow of nectar from flora, particularly from the
eucalypts, which varies from year to year. Production in 1948–49 was , a record high. The average returns from productive hives in 1958–59 was of honey per hive and the average quantity of wax was per productive hive. Australia had 451,000 hives in 1958–59 of which 315,000 were regarded as productive. Total production during that period from all hives was with a gross value of £1,803,000. The amount of bees wax produced in 1958–59 was worth £105,000. Victoria has long been one of the main honey producing states. In 1971, there were 1,278 registered beekeepers in the state with 103,454 hives that produced of honey worth $984,000, plus of beeswax valued at $68,000.
21st-century About 70% of Australian honey comes from nectar from native plants. Demand for pollination services for almonds and other crops is growing. Bee-brokers co-ordinate bee-keepers to provide pollination services for such crops. The species most commonly used for beekeeping in Australia is the
western honey bee (
Apis mellifera). Most commercial beekeepers have between 400 and 800 hives, but some large operators have up to 10,000. The Australian Manuka Honey Association (AMHA), has established a set of standards for authentic Australian Manuka honey. Honey that carries the AMHA’s Mark of Authenticity must be pure, natural Manuka honey, produced entirely in Australia, and be tested by an independent, approved laboratory to ensure it meets minimum standards of naturally occurring
methylglyoxal (MGO),
dihydroxyacetone (DHA), and leptosperin. Australia produces of honey annually. Some is
monofloral honey from a single flowering species while other honey is produced from multiple types of flowering plants. Popular types of honey include
leatherwood,
blue gum,
yellow box and
karri, each named after the trees that produce the pollen and nectar gathered by the bees. The purity, taste and variety of Australian honey makes it popular in Asia and elsewhere. The locally invented
flow hive for hobbyist and small scale beekeepers was launched in 2015. The stingless native bee species
Tetragonula carbonaria,
Tetragonula hockingsi and
Austroplebeia have been domesticated on a small scale for their honey.
Bushfires in the summer of 2019–20 caused massive losses of commercial honey bees, feral bees, native bees and other nectar-loving insects. Together they normally contribute about $14 billion to the Australian economy via the pollination of agricultural and broad-acre crops. Canola and almonds are particularly dependant on honey bees. The fires also devastated some of the best nectar producing forests where bees forage. The reduced honey bee population is expected to take between three and twenty years to recover. The Australian honeybee industry biosecurity code of practice requires beekeepers to inspect their hives at least twice a year and to keep accurate records. Hives must be inspected for the presence of pests and diseases and for hive strength, the inspection to include at least three full-depth brood frames in each hive. ==Diseases and parasites==