''Bees are very important. One in three mouthfuls of food you eat is produced directly or indirectly by bees. It could be the honey on your toast, apples pollinated in orchards, or even the steak that comes from lucerne-fed cattle,'' says Colin Fleay, a commercial beekeeper.

In Western Australia, there are about 75 commercial beekeepers, with almost half of these working in the Perth metropolitan region. Just under 30 per cent are found in the Midlands region, and the rest are scattered throughout most other regions of the State.

The majority of beekeepers are male, but many women are involved in the apiary industry.

There is currently no formal training being offered in Western Australia. All training is provided on the job, though there are short courses offered in NSW and through distance learning facilities.

You can't get a more natural product than honey, and bees have been pollinating flowers for centuries. But have you ever stopped to think about how bees are kept and used for commercial purposes?

Bees like any other livestock need to be managed effectively. The beekeeper is involved in all facets of bee management, ensuring that the colonies are producing the best quality and quantity of honey.



Working The Hives

''Beekeepers work the bees within the hives and manipulate the hives, checking where the queen is and checking the brood. The frames are moved around depending on the season, to encourage breeding,'' says Rod Pavy, owner and manager of Saxonbee Enterprises.

Hives in Western Australia usually consist of three boxes (or supers) each containing seven or eight frames. The bottom one (brood nest) houses the queen and her progeny, and the upper two (honey supers), collect the honey. Working with smokers, bee brushes, protective clothing and hive tools, beekeepers constantly manipulate the frames and boxes to assess the health of the colonies, control breeding and collect the honey.

When the honey season starts, it's ideal to have about 70,000 bees in a beehive. To ensure this, beekeepers need to know about swarm prevention, otherwise they'll lose their precious bees. Factors such as replacing the queen bee at the right time not only prevents swarming, but can also improve the genetics and size of a colony. As the availability of food and water also impacts on the size of a colony, beekeepers need to know when to give bees supplementary feeds to prepare for the honey season in spring and summer. As you can see, beekeeping involves ongoing management of the colony all year round.



Chasing The Pot of Gold

''We follow the honey flow. We have to look for sites and shift to the next nectar source, anywhere from Cervantes to Boddington. You need to work out how many buds and flowers there are in the area, taking into account factors such as a windy day, which can render flowers useless. If there isn't enough nectar in the area, then the bees may rob a feral hive and disease could be introduced into your hive'' says Colin Fleay.

Beekeepers are constantly on the go, following the floral blooms around the State. Bees are moved at night and unloaded at dawn at the new site to ensure minimal disturbance to the colony (and to the general public!). Make no mistake, this work can be long and physically challenging. Commercial beekeepers are moving up to 100 hives per truck or trip - this translates to up to 6 or 7 tonnes being moved around every 6 weeks, and hence mechanical loading devices like cranes are a necessary part of the job.

Bees are shifted every six to eight weeks. When you think that a good hive or box of honey produces 25 kilos a week at the peak, that's a helluva lot of honey!



Honey is collected in two ways - either on site (mobile extracting), where a caravan is set up or at the plant (central extracting) where the honey super boxes are trucked to the extracting plant. Here the honey is removed from the comb and graded according to colour.

Ouch Is The Downside To The Job

''Most days you get stung. But you get to develop a tolerance, and if you can get the sting out straight away the effects can be gone in 30 seconds. Most people can tolerate stings and aren't allergic,'' says Rod Pavy.

If you're afraid of bees, and not prepared to be away from home, then this may not be the job for you. Beekeepers need to have a finger in many honeypots - they need to know about botany, insect behaviour, marketing and even have basic carpentry skills. There's no doubt though, that those involved in beekeeping are passionate about their subject and the lifestyle.

''You're not home that often and sometimes you're in a different place very day. But it's a great lifestyle - my grandfather (also a beekeeper) used to say 'it's like having a picnic in the bush every day','' says Stephen Fewster, another beekeeper.



From Queen Bees To Orchard Pollination

Beekeepers can specialise in many aspects of apiculture (beekeeping). Some are involved in bulk honey production, some collect and sell pollen while others are involved in queen bee breeding. Hiring out bee boxes to orchards and farms for crop pollination is another important avenue open to beekeepers. Some beekeepers travel as far as Kununurra with their bees in tow.

Even though the record honey prices of recent times have levelled out, the beekeeping industry remains consistent in terms of employment.

Some industry sources say that some of the State's younger beekeepers are buying out existing businesses for expansion purposes. Employment opportunities may arise because of this.

In addition, the beekeeping industry is an ageing one and many commercial beekeepers have traditionally found it difficult recruiting staff locally, thereby creating further opportunities.



Salaries for employees are based on the Farm Employees Award. The minimum annual adult salary is $20,000, with many employees receiving other entitlements. Small owner/producers can gross up to $100,000 plus for honey and related products. However, this higher figure is probably in exceptional circumstances only. It may take a number of years to get there. For more information you could contact one of the related organisations listed below.

There is currently no accredited training available in beekeeping in Western Australia. Short courses in beekeeping and queen breeding are available in the eastern states.

A statement of attainment in beekeeping is available through the TAFE NSW- Open Training Education Network (see Beekeeping under Studying at OTEN-DE). CB Alexander Agricultural College at Tocal and The University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury) also offer short courses in apiculture. For further details, please refer to the websites below.

Beekeepers are required to register with the Department of Agriculture and need to apply for apiary site permits from the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM).

Beekeepers need to be aware of the strict legislation pertaining to the industry, especially in regards to disease control. For example it is illegal to import any bees or bee products into Western Australia from interstate or overseas. Beekeepers may also need to hold a heavy vehicle licence.

Final advice. Try and get work experience with a commercial apiarist. Learn how to open a hive and remove frames and work safely with bees. Many hobbyist beekeepers move into commercial beekeeping, so it may pay to think small scale first.

	CB Alexander Agricultural College
	Phone: 1800 025 520
	University of Western Sydney-Hawkesbury
	Phone: (02) 4570 1455

Western Australian Beekeepers Association
95 Manning St Scarborough WA 6019 Phone: (08) 9341 3087

Western Australian Farmers Federation - Beekeepers Section
PO Box 6291 East Perth WA 6892 Phone: (08) 9325 2933

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If a name is anything to go by, then Bart Lebbing's parents sure picked the right one. Bart means beekeeper in Polish, and St Bartholomew is the patron saint of mead-making. Unsurprising then that Bart Lebbing ended up in Denmark, Western Australia as a keeper of bees and the owner of a very successful mead-making business.

Bart's career in bees started years ago in Victoria when he was working on a farm.

''The lady there wanted to keep bees so she bought a box and a smoker and put the box in the bush, hoping that the bees would just move in - I didn't believe her! I got interested in the subject and read as much as I could. Then I went to a beekeeper's field day, and after that I got hooked.''

It's wonderful, according to Bart, to be able to practise and continue the traditions of two ancient crafts.

''Beekeeping is an old craft, which has been practised for thousands of years, and it made sense to continue on from beekeeping to mead-making, as mead is the oldest alcoholic drink known to mankind.''

Bartholomews Meadery, established in 1987, produces 15 different types of honey. Mead (the honey wine) is made by selecting the right flavoured honey and diluting this with rainwater. Wine yeast is added and this is fermented for two months before the wine is aged in wood for approximately a year. Bart produces four types of mead at his meadery, including metheglin which is celtic for 'healing liquor', drunk 2,000 years ago for medicinal purposes.

It's the healing properties of honey that excites Bart the most.

''A beehive used to be called the first pharmacy on earth. In South East Asia, honey is used as a medicine and not as a food. In Indonesia, you buy honey from a pharmacy and not a grocery store. Bees also produce propolis (a glue-like substance) and this is widely used in countries like Japan as a natural antibiotic and antioxidant. We sell propolis in our shop and people from Japan and South East Asia sometimes come in and buy the whole shelf!''

Given the health benefits of honey, it shouldn't be too surprising that for three hundred years, the orderlies at Saint Bartholomew hospital in London were paid with their weekly wages and a pot of mead.