HELP THE BEES
A Message from Professional and Amateur Beekeepers
Spray chemicals are an essential part of agriculture, and there are some crops for which the yield would be minimal without the use of pesticides.
Bees and other pollinators are an old but important part of agriculture, and in some crops are essential for getting a commercial yield.
However, some chemicals are damaging to pollinators, and others are really deadly.
This presents a range of problems for farmers, but there are ways in which these two essential components of farming can both operate successfully, without deadly overlaps. This has been recognised by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), who issue permits allowing the legal use of chemicals in certain ways in certain crops. Pesticides that are deadly to bees are clearly labelled on the instructions for use. For example, the permits and labels for Bulldock and Lepidex clearly state
“Dangerous to bees. DO NOT spray any plants in flower while bees are foraging”.
There are a limited number of situations where plants have to be sprayed while in flower. One of the above chemicals has a permit to control lace bugs in macadamias. Because bees will be in the flowers during daylight (bees rush out at dawn to get the nectar and pollen that have been produced overnight, and the bee activity falls off towards dusk), this condition dictates that this spraying can only be done at night.
Most macadamia farms in the Northern Rivers are small holdings less than 40 ha, and the district also has many rural residential properties down to 2 ha embedded in it. Bees forage over more than 3 km radius, covering an area in excess of 2700 ha. Because the farms are small, they are often fully developed, and it is not possible to find a suitable area for the apiary that is away from spray drift. In many cases, the apiary would be placed on a neighbouring property with cleared areas, and there will be a number of macadamia farms well within foraging range. They may have different varieties of trees, and spray at different times.
It is not reasonable for growers to expect beekeepers to keep track of spraying schedules and move bees in and out as needed. Locking up is not an option, as bees generate heat, and hives quickly overheat when closed.
Moving beehives for professionals involves a lot of work at night. They need somewhere over 10km away to store the hives, and when they are returned each hive should be put back in the same place. This moving is quite hard on the bees, which are adapted to a stationary hive in a particular location. Pollination time would be lost with the moving and the reorientation of the bees.
Hobby beekeepers in foraging range have little hope if the grower sprays in the daytime; they will not be told when spraying will occur, and the hives are not set up for moving. They may have a lot of boxes of honey on them, making them very heavy.
Most growers or managers have got the message and do their spraying at night. Those growers and contractors who do spray in the daytime kill not only bees from commercial managed hives, but also bees from feral hives, bees from their neighbours’ hobby hives, native bees and other pollinating insects, reducing the overall number of pollinators not only for themselves, but for all their neighbours. Beekeepers are attached to their livestock like any farmer, and to see them killed wantonly is disturbing.
It is not a major impost for growers or managers to spray at night for most sprays. Even when the plants are not in flower, they should spray at night for other pests like nut weevil, for there may be flowering weeds and groundcover in their orchard.
It is incumbent on growers to obey the permit and label instructions, and to remind neighbours to do so as well. It may cost a little more to spray, but that is a cost of doing business. Spraying at night also leads to fewer problems with drift of sprays, because of the reduction in wind. Inversion layers are a minor problem.
Much of the pollination of macadamias by bees is done on a win-win basis, with no money changing hands. Where the apiary is located on a property which does not have macadamias, the beekeeper usually gives honey to this property owner.
The big scrub country on which the macadamias are grown has always been used by beekeepers in Spring, because the flowering of trees, weeds etc gave the hives a good start. This happened for years before macadamia plantings became common.
At present, many beekeepers will not put managed hives near the macadamias, because of losses that they have had in the past. If the macadamia industry lifts its game and the poisoning is reduced, it will benefit as more beekeepers move managed beehives into the area, increasing pollination and the yield of nuts. It has been shown that cross pollination by the wide-ranging European honeybee can lead to improved macadamia yields.
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