World Bee Day: Orange Beekeepers urge honey bee education, awareness

Honey bee enthusiast and member of the Orange Beekeepers club Cameron Wild says "one in every three mouthfuls of food" that we eat has been pollinated by bees.

'They're critically important and they're endangered. All over the world there's all sorts of issues with bees," Mr Wild said.

Started in 2019, Orange Beekeepers are still "very new" but already have 95 paid-up members from all over the region.

The group meets once a month to share knowledge and tips about the hobby that's become increasingly popular.

In addition to their importance, the species' appeal for many also lies in their fascinating nature.

"I just love the organisation of them. They're a very, very democratic, organised society. Every single individual is an individual but they work as a collective. They all have their functions," Mr Wild said.

"The queen mates once with up to five or 10 bees and that makes her fertile for the rest of her life. And she lays between 1,500 and 2,000 eggs a day.

"The male bees are called drones and they're really interesting because they're hatched from an unfertile egg - so they don't have a father - but they can be a father."

There are currently two hives at the Orange Environmental Learning Facility which the Orange Beekeepers look after. Each one has between 15,000 and 20,000 bees but only one queen.

The hives also have nothing to do with each other - in fact if a bee from the neighbouring hive tries to enter the other one it would be stung to death.

"They know [when a bee is from a different hive] because each queen has an individual pheromone," he said.

In terms of people's misconceptions about bees, Mr Wild said that tended to driven by fear. Additionally, many did not know that bee venom was used to treat arthritis.

"If you educate kids the right way, they can become involved with bees from quite a young age," he added.

"Teach them to treat the bees kindly."

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