BEEKEEPING —
SWARM PROTECTION
1180. Hon SIMON O'BRIEN to the Minister for
Agriculture and Food:
What reassurance can the government
offer to beekeepers concerned that bee swarms need to be protected from
extermination by pest control businesses?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for that
question. I understand that many members have been contacted on this point. We
have had an interesting response from the industry. It states —
As a result of people becoming
increasingly aware of the environment, their footprint on the environment and
where their food comes from, we have seen a significant increase in the number
of backyard hobbyist beekeepers � the number of registered beekeepers � is over
3,000 �
As many budding beekeepers will no
doubt find, it can be quite a bit harder than simply purchasing a hive and
hoping the bees will take care of themselves. Particularly at this time of year
when flowers are in full bloom, the hive will generate queen cells. If a beekeeper
doesn't maintain their hive and remove these queen cells, once the new
queen hatches, she will force the old queen out of the hive. As the old queen
departs, a swarm of bees will go with her.
More frequently, this is how we end
up in a situation where the swarm will attempt to make a new home in someone's
house. Many of our Local Governments have a list of qualified people who are
swarm collectors, which offer relocation services � However, regrettably there
are circumstances where the swarms find themselves in a location, such as a wall
cavity, where it is simply impractical to remove them and extermination is the
only solution.