BEES play a vital role in Orange orchards to ensure fruits such as apples and pears are pollinated and today they are being celebrated at the Orange Honey Festival.
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Held at the showgrounds yesterday and today, the two- day festival and NSW Bee Week Field Days is focusing on beekeeping, its products, how agriculture relies on it and what is happening with bees in Australia and overseas.
Among those supporting the event is beekeeper Bruce White who got his first hive when he was nine and worked for the Department of Agriculture for 42 years where he advised people on the management of bees.
“Without bees, agriculture will massively suffer,” he said.
He said this was shown when early Australian settlers also struggled to grow foods such as apples until European honey bees were imported aboard the Isabella in 1822.
Mr White said although there has been a decline in bee numbers in Australia in the past three or four years due to dry weather and changing seasonal patterns causing plants to pollinate out of season, there has not been the massive colony die-offs reported in Europe.
Along with strict quarantine polices that have kept many diseases out of Australia, he said Australian beekeepers know when plants are due to flower ensuring food sources are available and are less likely to overpopulate their hives.
“Overstocking leads to less nutrition, they rely on protein, if they don’t get the protein they die quickly,” Mr White said.
He said Australian eucalypts are an idea food source and farming practices, which in the past have led to mass die-off, now also work more in the bees’ favour.
There are also about 2000 species of native bees that are smaller and use different food sources.