Beekeepers operate beehives to produce honey and related products such as
beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, propolis (bee glue and bee antiseptic) and
queen bees, and to pollinate seed, fruit, nut and vegetable crops.
Alternative Names:Apiarist or
Apiculturist
Specialisations:
After gaining adequate experience, beekeepers may choose to focus upon one
of four main industry segments:
apiary,
queen bee production,
marketing and
packing, or
pollination.
Some may specialise as apiary inspectors/advisers
or laboratory diagnostic technicians.
Knowledge, skills and attributes
enjoy botany (plants) and entomology (insects)
free of allergies and able to work with bees
able to work in isolated areas
willing to work long and irregular hours
able to lift heavy weights
happy to work alone
able to keep accurate records.
Duties and Tasks
Beekeepers may perform the following tasks:
Breeds and raises bees for the production of honey and related
products and for pollination stock.
build or put together parts of ready-made beehives
Maintains equipment.
Monitors and maintains the health and condition of bees.
treat and paint beehive parts to prevent wood rot
negotiate with property owners and government agencies for sites on
which to keep their bees
transport hives to sites which have been assessed for honey and/or
pollen production potential
insert sheets of wax stamped with a honeycomb imprint into frames to
be placed into hives
remove honeycombs from the hive and extract honey
look after and repair beehives and honey-extracting equipment
Maintains appropriate nutritional levels and
control bee diseases, pests and parasites in working hives
package and sell honey, pollen, propolis and beeswax
re-queen colonies and raise queen bees for own use or sale
negotiate with farmers to provide pollination services in the
growing of nut, fruit, seed and vegetable crops
process and clean beeswax.
Organises the sale, purchase and transportation
of stock and produce.
Maintains and evaluates records of activities,
monitoring market activity and planning production accordingly.
Manages business capital including budgeting,
taxation, debt and loan management.
May select, train and supervise staff and
contractors.
Beekeepers travel a lot, examining honey and pollen flora and transporting
beehives by truck from site to site as plants start flowering.
A beekeeper working hours will vary depending
on the time of year and the number of hives they
have. They will spend more time inspecting
their hives during the spring and summer when the
bees are active and producing honey.
Most of the work will take place outdoors. Bees
don’t react well to being handled in wet and cold weather so
beekeepers may use this time to maintain
their equipment or process
their honey and other products like royal jelly.
Much of their
time is spent outdoors and away from home.
Many wear protective clothing
such as overalls, gloves and hats with nets attached to protect their faces.
Have a look at this video about bees: How Do Honeybees Get Their Jobs? |
National Geographic https://youtu.be/9ePic3dtykk
Beekeeping Industry in Australia
The beekeeping industry is responsible for the raising of bees and the
collection of apiary (bee) products.
There are about 10,000 registered beekeepers in Australia operating
approximately 600,000 hives.
By location, NSW is the largest honey producer (39 per cent), followed by
South Australia (19 per cent), Victoria (17 per cent), Queensland (14 per
cent), Western Australia (7 per cent) and Tasmania (4 per cent). Most
commercial honeybee keepers are regionally based.
The prime area for beekeeping and honey production in Australia is a large
temperate land stretching from southern Queensland to central Victoria.
NSW is in the heart of this region and has the majority of beekeepers. In
2003 there were 3,575 registered keepers with 256,055 hives. The industry is
in its infancy in the Northern Territory with only six registered keepers
and fewer than 2,000 hives in 2003.
Honey is the most common apiary product. Beeswax is the other major product,
produced at a fairly constant ratio of 1kg of wax per 60 kg of honey. Queen
bees can also be a valuable product for specialised sectors of the industry.
There is a growing market in renting bees for pollination services,
especially in South Australia and Victoria where changes in agricultural
practice and land management means that there a fewer wild bees to pollinate
crops.
There are few professional beekeepers in Australia who depend solely on bees
and apiary products for their living. The majority of beekeepers do keep
bees for a profit, but supplement their income with some other activity, as
earnings are volatile.
Apart from a career as a beekeeper/apiarist there are associated areas
including transport, food processing, retailing and marketing of honey and
honey products.
A team which has worked on the Mars Rover project have designed a beehive
using tiny cameras and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent
hitch-hiking varroa mites from entering our ports. (Source:
Landline 25 July 2020)
Bees can be used to detect landmines. Tiny radio
plates the size of a rice grain will be attached to honey bees to
detect antipersonnel landmines, of which there are about 100 million
in 70 war-torn countries.
The tiny radio plates are engraved with serial numbers to keep track
of the bees, which are being conditioned to develop a preference in
addition to nectar, in this case TNT, or any other material that
releases metamphenamine.
Special spectrometers that can “smell” TNT are placed in movable
beehives to indicate landmines in specific areas.
Bees that “smell” of explosives can then be tracked to the landmine.
The bees won’t detonate the landmines. (Source: The Remarkable Busy
Bee)
The Gut
Microbiome.... of Bees
Ockham's Razor
Sunday 3 October 2021