Varroa mite movement orders trap some Queensland beekeepers

Queensland Beekeepers' Association president and beekeeper at Condamine Apiaries, Wheatvale, near Warwick, Jacob Stevens said while essential to protect the industry, the numerous state movement orders had caught many off guard.

"The public information that we had varroa in Newcastle came out on the Friday [June 24] and we had trucks with 720 hives ready to go on the Sunday. But we made the decision not to go and then had to change our plans fairly rapidly," Mr Stevens said.

"That timing was quite incredible. If it was a couple of weeks later, we'd have a lot more people that would have been stuck in New South Wales with their bees."

There are still many beekeepers stuck over the border and industry and governments are working on the safest way to get them home.

"We've got Queensland bees in New South Wales that won't be able to return to Queensland at this stage and that's becoming a pretty big priority for us to be able to repatriate those bees or let those businesses continue to operate in some form of normality. That's a big thing for government and us to work on at the minute," Mr Stevens said.

The beekeeper said the state government had been "really supportive" in its movement control order to deliver some bees and beekeeping equipment into Queensland, and as the situation changed, industry would make its position clear to government as to what it needed.

While NSW is ground zero for the destructive parasite, plenty of Queenslanders are feeling the effects.

Commercial beekeepers that rely on canola throughout NSW at this time of the year to build bees for honey production and pollination have been locked out.

Victoria announced a provision last Friday allowing some bees to travel to the state's Sunraysia region for the almond pollination, but Mr Stevens said many were choosing to stay at home.

"The uncertainty around all of these borders and what the situation might be has seen a lot of Queensland bees that were going to almonds pull out and stay in Queensland," Mr Stevens said.

"There's probably no question that it is going to affect a fair few of those guys that have had and do rely on [the almond contracts]. It makes up a fair part of their business."

The QBA president said macadamia and avocado contracts were still sound for many, but for those people that didn't have any other paid pollination in Queensland, their only other option may be honey production.

In a sign of industry solidarity, Mr Stevens said about 50 Queensland volunteers have travelled to Newcastle to help with the surveillance effort, including his brother and a full time employee.

"It's really humbling to see so many Queenslanders get involved and get down there and help with surveillance efforts. That's been excellent for everyone to put their hand up and do their bit," he said.

Marina Elliot, a beekeeper at Flagstone Creek, east of Toowoomba, is one of those volunteers.

On Monday, she caught a bus with other volunteers and beekeepers destined for Newcastle, where she will do hive inspections within the exclusion zones or zones that are linked to others that have had varroa mite.

"We'll be going through the hives and doing alcohol shakes, where you scoop half a cup of bees into alcohol and shake it and it knocks the mites off."

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