First reports of Hive losses from fires come in...

[mick]

I heard of one bloke that lost 38/40 hives through the heat alone.



Leslie White

February 20, 2009

ALMOND growers will likely need to import bees from interstate for pollination as the fallout from the Victorian bushfires continues.

Not only are significant numbers of hives assumed to have been lost, but the recovery of the state's pollination force will be made more difficult as vital native forest has been devastated.

Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture president Peter Cochrane confirmed the loss of beehives was "assumed to be significant".

"It will be assessed over coming weeks," Mr Cochrane said.

"We've been working with federal and state governments to develop options for the governments to assist the industry."

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council chairman Lindsay Bourke said crops of almonds, cabbages and cherries would be "at risk".

"They won't have enough hives (in Victoria) until at least December, (growers) will have to request more hives from other states," Mr Bourke said.

"They'll just have to hope the beekeepers might travel further, but it's a fair cost."

Victoria would have to "buy and breed", Mr Bourke said.

Queensland Beekeepers president Rodney Ruge said his association would meet this week to discuss what assistance could be given to the Victorian industry.

"We'll see what we can do from this end," Mr Ruge said.

"We would certainly be able to help out with replacing queens."

However, Mr Ruge said the real issues for Victoria would be replacing the hives themselves, then getting the conditions right for the bees to create honeycomb, as well as a lack of native forest exacerbated by the fires.

Bees need nectar-rich eucalypt forest to regenerate their hives, and with foliage burned beekeepers will have to find new places to put their bees.

"There's concern about not having enough bees for the almond crop (in August)," Mr Ruge said.

"It certainly will have an impact on that, if losses are huge, there's no way they could get enough (bees in Victoria to cope with pollination demand), they'll be flat out doing it by December."

[NWIN Beekeeper]

Browns invited me to work for them down-under if I could get the ever impossible work visa.
I guess all things considered, I guess its better I didn't .
I suppose I'd been drafted to fight brushfires!

I'm concerned with the aftermath will truely be.
Will this fertilize everything and make for a fantastic rebirth?
Will the soil blow away into the ocean and everything will be a rock garden?
It will be interesting. But I hope for the best for our friends, and their family and neighbors.
There will never be justice for the damages caused by these crimes.

[Brian D. Bray]

Me thinks the importation of bees into the US will be curtailed this year and next as Australia works at rebuilding its own bee population back to a acceptable amount.  Since entire colonies were burnt to the ground this is going to be more expensive and time consuming than just filling dead out.  Every thing has to be replace which is more likely a 2-3 year project.  By that time the results of natures bounce back in the burned out area will be evident.