Beekeeping
Unveiling the Magic of Bees: Your Beekeeping Resource Center
HoneyBee Hives welcomes all bee enthusiasts, from curious newcomers to seasoned beekeepers! This page is your comprehensive guide to the fascinating world of these vital pollinators. Explore the wonders of beekeeping and discover the joy of nurturing your own bee colony.
HoneyBee Hives: Your Partner in Beekeeping Success
We are dedicated to supporting your beekeeping journey at every stage. Whether you’re just starting out or have experience under your belt, we offer a wealth of resources to guide you:
- Comprehensive Beekeeping Information: Dive deep into the world of bees with our informative resources, covering everything from beekeeping basics to advanced techniques.
- Lifetime Phone Support: Our friendly beekeeping experts are just a phone call away, ready to answer your questions and offer personalised guidance throughout your beekeeping adventure.
Our goal is to empower you to experience the joy and fulfillment of beekeeping.
Browse our collection today and embark on your beekeeping journey with confidence!
Varroa Mite Management
The Varroa destructor mite is now considered established in New South Wales. Varroa is a notifiable pest under the Biosecurity Act 2015 and Biosecurity Regulation 2017, so beekeepers are required to monitor and report its presence.
Winter Care for Bees
As the temperatures start to drop and the days get shorter, beekeepers know it’s time to start preparing their hives for winter. This is an essential step in ensuring the health and survival of your bees throughout the colder months. Here are some tips on how to properly prepare your bee hives for winter.
Caring for Bees
Bees suffering from inadequate nutrition are more liable to suffer from secondary health issues. Ideally, sufficient reserves should always be left for bees to get through times of potential shortage.
Beekeeping Basics
Beekeeping requires a fair amount of specific knowledge in order to be successful. There is so much great information available online and we have gathered a few links here to help you on your way.
Apply for Beekeeper
Registration NSW
Be a responsible beekeeper. Bees are amazing animals that play a critical role in global food security as well as providing income to professional beekeepers and enjoyment to hobbyists the world over.
Beekeeping Codes of
Practice by State
Before getting started with beekeeping, it’s important that you understand all the rules and regulations of your state. Use these state-by-state links to find out everything you need to know.
The Buzz About Bees
Welcome to the wonderful world of bees, beekeeping, honey and pollination. In this book we explore the interesting and busy lives of our littlest livestock, find out how our precious honey is made, and the very important role bees play in our broader environment – from pollinating various plant species to the foods we eat.
HoneyBee Hives has no affiliation with Capliano.
Welcome to the Hive
This book was designed to introduce you to one of the most social insects on the planet, the honey bee. Honey bees do more than make delicious honey for us to eat; so come discover for yourself! You don’t have to be a beekeeper to participate. You just need to be curious about honey bees.
Follow the “Beeline” through each section on your own or with the help of your leader. Some activities you can do by yourself, but most were made for you to participate with a group of friends.
You will learn a lot of new vocabulary from the world of honey bees. These words are in bold font when they are first introduced. If in later sections you forget a definition, you can look back to previous sections or use the glossary at the end of this chapter. When you get to the end of the “beeline,” hopefully you will have learned new and interesting facts about the honey bee.
Beekeeping 101
Videos covering everything you need to know to support you through your beekeeping journey.
The Beekeeper.org Training
The first year is crucial – and with so much conflicting advice available online, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Learn in your own time with high-quality videos explaining what you need to know in order to feel confident looking after your bees.
PLUS: 50% of profits go towards bee-friendly projects and habitat regeneration initiatives around the world.
Free Online Beekeeping Course
Whether you’ve just gotten your first hives, or you’ve been dreaming about having backyard bees for pollination and delicious honey, this weekly series direct to your inbox will guide you through what you need to know.
Australian Beekeeping Associations
Joining a local association is also a great way to meet fellow beekeepers and learn more about the hobby. Use these links to contact your relevant association.
Spring Management Of Bees
Spring refers here to the period September, October and November. During this period, bees may starve in September due to lack of stored honey or may swarm in late October/November.
Wintering Bees
On average, 20% of unmanaged bee colonies may die during winter. In managed hives this figure can vary from around 5% to 100%, depending on the measures taken in autumn to prepare for winter.
Dept. of Primary Industries Honey Bees
Honey bees play an essential role in agriculture, not only producing honey and beeswax but also pollinating a vast number of food crops.
The Australian Honey Bee Industry Biosecurity Code Of Practice
The Australian Honey Bee Industry Biosecurity Code of Practice (the Code) has been developed in consultation with beekeepers and governments to provide a clear framework for Australian beekeepers to engage in best-practice biosecurity.
Floods & Beekeeping
Flooding affects all livestock, including honey bees. Where floodwaters have passed through bee hives, once the beekeeper can safely access the apiary, there are immediate tasks to undertake. Any hives that were submerged are potentially damaged and contaminated.
Bushfires: Caring for Heat and Smoke Affected Apiaries
Following a bushfire or prolonged heat event honey bees can suffer heat and smoke stress. Stressed colonies can take months to recover and some may eventually die.
Crop Pollination
Pollination is the movement of pollen from the anthers of a flower to the stigma of the same or a different flower. It is one of the most important parts of the economic production of many crops.
Nutritional Requirements of Honey Bees
Honey bees require water, nectar and pollen to meet their nutritional requirements.
Supplementary Feeding of Honey Bees
To stimulate brood rearing, beekeepers have a choice: they can either move hives onto breeding conditions prior to major honey flows, taking advantage of various flowering species, or they can artificially stimulate their hives with supplementary feeding.
Removing Honey From The Hive
One of the main reasons for keeping honey bees is to harvest the honey that bees store in their hives. The ability of honey bees to store vast quantities of this sweet substance has attracted human interest for thousands of years.
Pollen Trapping And Storage
Pollen is the male reproductive element of flowering plants. While it provides genetic material and nutrients for the development of seed, it is also an important component of honey bee nutrition.
National Best Management Practice For Beekeeping In The Australian Environment
In times of drought, uncertain climate forecasts and tough markets, farmers are relying heavily on quality pollination services to increase their productivity.
To provide those services, the bee industry needs to safeguard its access to public native forests. The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council has been working closely with bee keepers and with managers of native floral resources on this very important issue.
Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden
As news continues to break about the declining bee population, we begin to worry about the impacts it will have on our food supply.
Honey bees, one of the top pollinators, pollinate many of our flowering plants and crops. When bee populations dwindle due to mites, pesticides, habitat depletion, global warming, and other environmental stressors, crops such as blueberries, strawberries, avocados, and vegetables suffer. That’s why beekeepers and farmers urge homeowners to plant bee-friendly gardens and take action to protect bees in their own backyards.
If you’re not sure how to get started, here are some tips.
Pests & Diseases
Small Hive Beetle Management
The small hive beetle (SHB) (Aethina tumida) is a pernicious threat to beekeepers and can swiftly destroy a thriving hive.
Smallhive Beetle
The larvae of SHB cause the majority of damage to honey bees by burrowing into combs, eating brood, honey and pollen.
Plant Health Australia Beekeeping Biosecurity Training
Fabulous FREE resource regarding pests and diseases in beekeeping, which we highly recommend to every beekeeper BEFORE, (and refreshed every season) getting bees.
Pesticides & Bees
Pesticides are used in agriculture, horticulture, and in field and forest situations to control a wide range of insect pests and weeds.
American Foulbrood
American foulbrood (AFB) is a fatal microbial disease of honey bee brood caused by the spore forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae.
Chalkbrood Disease
Chalkbrood disease is caused by the fungus
Ascosphaera apis. The fungus produces spores
which are swallowed by honey bee larvae when
they are fed by nurse bees.
European Foulbrood
European foulbrood is a brood disease
caused by the bacterium Melissococcus plutonius. Larvae of all ages are susceptible to infection and become infected after ingesting contaminated food.
Nosemosis
Nosemosis, or nosema disease, is caused by two
species of microsporidian parasites (a type of spore forming fungus) called Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae.
Pests And Diseases Of Honey Bees
Bee brood diseases that are established (endemic) or exotic, exotic mites (exotic meaning not known to exist in Australia) and the parasite braula fly are some of the main threats to the commercial beekeeping industry in New South Wales.
Varroa Destructor Life Cycle
A nice and simple explanation of how Varroa kills entire bee colonies.
Report bee poisoning in NSW
Report a honey bee pesticide event in New South Wales by contacting the Environment Protection Authority on 131 555 or visit epa.nsw.gov.au.
HoneyBee Hives Disclaimer
We have no affiliation with any of the information sources and accept no responsibility for the accuracy of information.
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