16/02/2025
The realities of working with nature… 🐝🐝
A few days ago, we received this letter from the department outlining the areas they’re planning to conduct prescribed burns throughout this autumn. Unfortunately, this includes our two main winter/spring bee sites…
These burns, while essential for ecosystem management to avoid massive bushfires like we’ve seen in the past, create serious challenges for us and other beekeepers. With fewer blossoms available, our bees will struggle to gather enough food, which could weaken colonies and set back our ability to produce the high-quality raw honey our customers love.
Here’s how we’re working to navigate these challenges:
🐝 Relocating hives to areas with unaffected forage to keep our bees thriving.
🐝 Closely monitoring hive health for stress, queen loss, and reduced brood (baby worker bees) production.
🐝 Staying informed about burn schedules and working with the department to protect our apiaries.
🐝 Timing hive management carefully to minimise disruption during and after the burns.
This is why we never keep all our bees in one area, and despite these setbacks, we’re committed to maintaining the health of our bees and producing the best raw honey possible. This season has been difficult, and it’s looking like next season will be impacted too. Your continued support means everything to us as we work through these challenges! 💛🍯
If you have any questions about how these burns affect our bees, honey production, or anything else, we’d love to hear from you! We’re always happy to share more about what goes on behind the scenes in beekeeping. 🐝