“If we didn’t have bees we wouldn’t have anything beautiful or colourful in the supermarket,” explains urban beekeeper and founder of Rooftop Honey, Vanessa Kwiatkowski.
“All of our stone fruit and apples; it’s all reliant on bees. Humans would have to do manual pollination and the cost to agriculture would be huge.”
Unlike elsewhere in the world, Australia is experiencing the “last golden age of beekeeping in the world”, according to beekeeper and founder of Honey Fingers, Nic Dowse.
“We actually don’t have colony collapse disorder – this phenomenon that every other continent in the world other than Antarctica are now having,” he says. “Bees can cope with industrial-scale beekeeping. They can cope with fungicides and herbicides and pesticides. They can cope with migratory beekeeping. But when you introduce this little mite called varroa destructor – a carrier of diseases – the bees struggle. Australia does not have an established varroa destructor problem.”
If we want to enjoy the European bees that are responsible for keeping our gardens beautiful and our plates brimming with beautiful food – as well as the best honey in the world – there are actions we can take to help. Here are ten to get you started.
If you have a backyard, look at planting a range of bee-friendly flowers and plants. Rosemary, lavender, sunflowers and Californian poppies are all good examples. On the native side, Grevilleas and Callistemons (bottlebrushes) are also bee-friendly.
If you have lawn, let it grow a little – bees adore clover and dandelion. Dowse suggests letting it grow and simply mowing a path through, or having longer borders around the outside.
But don’t think you’re off the hook if you only have a balcony or a windowsill. There are lots of small flowering herbs that bees adore, such as sage and thyme.
Don’t use pesticides or poisons, especially not weedkiller or anything containing neonicotinoids. They’re not good for you and they’re not good for bees. Kwiatkowski advises looking into alternative means of controlling pests in your garden, for instance companion planting, which can be extremely effective. Consider shifting to organic produce to support more bee-friendly agriculture.
Get to know your local beekeeper and buy local, raw honey. Not only do we have the best honey in the world, these beekeepers are doing us a favour and they deserve your support.
“You’re supporting people who are trying to manage bee populations,” says Dowse.
“We don’t maintain 11,000 hives, we’re not industrial-scale, we have relationships with all the hives we have, and we are smaller apiaries, probably located in local suburbs where people live, so they’re foraging for food in our homes. That’s the beautiful thing about eating and sourcing locally.”
Once you know your local beekeeper, if you find a wild hive or a swarm, refrain from calling your local council or a pest controller. Beekeepers can relocate the swarm without resorting to poisons or other destruction.
Bees get thirsty, so in summer leave a dish of water out in the shade with a stick or stone in the middle for them to land on. If you find a tired bee, put out a teaspoon of sugar water to give it a boost and get it home. However, never use honey because it can carry bee diseases.
If you’re scared of bees, do some reading. They’re not out to get you, we just have to learn how to interact with them in urban environments, explains Kwiatkowski.
“The reason people get stung is because we bump into one another in the garden. But they don’t necessarily sting you when that happens. You do get a warning, but you only get one,” she says.
“Waving your hands and swatting, that’s like holding a red rag to a bull for a bee. But if you don’t swat and you stay relatively still, they’ll realise you’re not a threat and they’ll go.”
Once you’ve done your reading, realised how important and harmless bees are, and fallen in love with local Aussie honey, you might even consider keeping your own bees or hosting a hive. If so, it’s time to join your local beekeeping club. Plus, it’s not as tough as you might think.
Here’s the most important thing you can do for bees: share what you learn far and wide. Advocate for them and tell people why they should get on board the bee train. It’s not difficult to make a huge difference and keep our bees buzzing strong.
