Bees With Ben Ben

With more than 10 years’ experience, developing, designing and delivering workplace mental health and wellbeing programs, Rae works with a broad range of organisations, industries and settings with a special skill in crisis and suicide response. A qualified counsellor trained in Rogerian theory – Rae draws on her authenticity, genuineness, and empathy to create environments of trust and safety. She has a focus on men and boy’s health, offering confidential in person and online sessions for individuals, couples and groups. For a decade, she’s been a volunteer Ambassador for Beyond Blue and also donates her time to community organisations and settings where the smallest acts of kindness and care can be lifechanging. She’s well known for her enthusiastic advocacy in the men’s health space, where she believes that a male friendly approach to support and resources could have a positive impact for everyone. The first female board member of the Australian Men’s Health Forum, she compliments this with a recent election to the board of Global Action on Men’s Health. You can also tune into Rae’s radio show on 94.1FM 3WBC, “What does it feel like, being you today”, where she interviews people from all over the world, asking that question.Rae Bonney's website at (https://www.raebonney.au), and join us in this ongoing conversation to bring about change and hope.



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The Mystery of Toxic Honeys with Dr. Andrew Knill"**

Welcome to another buzzing episode of "Bees with Ben," a podcast where we delve into the fascinating world of bees and their impact on our ecosystem. This week, we're joined by renowned scientist Dr. Andrew Knill, who brings his expertise to a rather intriguing topic: toxic honeys and the effects of Patterson's Curse nectar in honey.



**A Deep Dive into Toxic Honeys:**



Dr. Knill starts by exploring the broader concept of toxic honeys, a phenomenon that has intrigued scientists and beekeepers alike. He explains how certain plants, when foraged by bees, can lead to the production of honey with unusual properties. These honeys, while rare, can range from being mildly psychoactive to potentially harmful.

Patterson's Curse – A Blessing or a Curse?



Our focus then shifts to Patterson's Curse, a plant known for its vibrant beauty and its controversial role in honey production. Dr. Knill discusses the dual nature of this plant - how it's both a bane for farmers and a boon for beekeepers in certain regions. He delves into the chemistry of Patterson's Curse nectar and how it influences the honey produced.

Dr. Knill shares insights from his recent research on how bees interact with Patterson's Curse and how they are affected by its nectar. The conversation takes an intriguing turn as we discuss the effects of this honey on human health. Dr. Knill breaks down the myths and realities, providing a balanced view on the potential risks and benefits.

Don't forget to subscribe for more insightful episodes of "Bees with Ben." We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so feel free to leave a comment or reach out on our social media platforms. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll explore another fascinating aspect of beekeeping and the wonders of the bee world.

This week’s episode of the Bees with Ben podcast features a question-and-answer session between Ben and his special studio guest, Brent Nixon, who has driven down from Ballarat South for the occasion.

Naturally, Ben’s first question for Brent is how he started out with bees? Brent explains that he grew up in a family of cattle breeders and wanted to breed something for himself. He studied genetics at university, including the pioneering work of Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics. Many people don’t realize that Mendel, who was a monk, also conducted research with bees, which were often kept at monasteries to produce beeswax candles, in addition to honey. Mendel was attempting to breed bees using a cage, which wasn’t really effective, but his early work was taken up by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey in the UK - the creator of the ‘Buckfast bee’. Brent became fascinated with breeding bees, but although he had the theoretical knowledge, he had never been inside a hive.

Then about 8 years ago, his wife’s uncle, who was a beekeeper, found him a swarm - located about 10 metres up a tree. Brent was given a half suit and positioned under the swarm, with instructions to catch the bees in a box, while the uncle clambered up the tree to dislodge the insects. Somehow, Brent managed to catch the queen, and the beekeeper told him to put the box down, and that the rest of the swarm would soon follow, which they did.

Today, Brent has his own podcast called ‘Breeding the Honey Bee’, which is named after the famous book written by Brother Adam. He has recorded 11 episodes to date, including an interview with the head beekeeper at Buckfast Abbey.

Ben is quizzed about the development of his business and the transition from part-time to his main source of income. He says he started off slowly and built his business on diversification; he vividly remembers making beeswax candles in his kitchen and struggling to clean the wax off the lino floor (Brent interjects that he thinks he ruined the plumbing in his first house as some beeswax went down the sink). Ben goes on to say that one of the main problems is that the business is so seasonal, and that he struggled to get through the winter in the early years. He cautions that he has seen beekeeping businesses go too hard and too quick, and ultimately fall over.

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/?fbclid=IwAR3LekNglAfD_R-psKhjH102qzkBorcgBHJqcJ6D8e5NAqiyKgroh9sFL1k



https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/pages/podcast?fbclid=IwAR0vDUhGW0Axip2VCqp4TEi7tK6rQa06rWOAC-XQINwri6qXuSUUdeXn3G8



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In this week’s episode of the Bees with Ben podcast, Ben is fortunate to have as his guest a man with a wealth of experience in all areas of the beekeeping industry, with a glittering array of credentials! Steve Fuller is an Executive Councillor of the NSW Apiarists’ Association Inc., President of the Northern Coast branch of NSWAA, an Advisory panel member for Agrifutures’ Australia (Honey Bee and Pollination), Secretary of the Crop Pollination Association of Australia, and a participant in the 5 BEES programme run by Wheen Bee. Phew! Along with his brother Wayne, he owns and operates Bee Services in northern NSW, which has been in business for more than 40 years producing organic honey and offering pollination services for a wide variety of crops. The company currently manages about 5,000 hives and has around 20 employees.

Steve outlines his fascinating journey in the beekeeping industry, and his absolute love for bees, but it is his unique perspective as an industry leader, and business owner, with respect to the varroa outbreak in NSW last year that dominates the podcast. Steve reveals that prior to the discovery of varroa in Australia on 22 June last year he was already prepping his business for the possibility of a varroa incursion, because he thought it was likely to happen sooner rather than later. Incredibly, although he was told of the outbreak as soon as it was discovered, he was not able to say anything about it for 3 days, until sufficient infrastructure was in place. On day 4, after attending a conference in Queensland, Steve drove to the Local Command Centre (LCC) in Maitland

The bee industry had plans in place for many years, but Steve stresses that a plan, no matter how detailed or effective, is not the same as the real thing. Plus, most of the people in bee organizations are volunteers with their own businesses to think about. Early on the DPI engaged the services of rural firefighters, who have considerable experience managing disasters. Steve was working 7 days straight before being forced to have 2 days off.

Steve says that inspecting hives in those early days wasn’t a problem; the problem was identifying where hives were, so that there was a real chance of encircling and eventually eliminating the outbreak. He tells Ben that feral hives are the hardest to control because they can be anywhere, and that baiting is not effective unless the bees have no other food source. By September 2022, Steve was already conceding that total elimination of the mites may not be possible. The stark reality is that just one mite on the back of a truck can spread the infestation anywhere in the country, as female mites are already pregnant when they leave the cells in brood comb.

Steve was still working at the LLC when he was told of the discovery of varroa in his own backyard - in the berry producing area around Coffs Harbour. For those who think life is easy as a beekeeper,

Steve lost 1,400 hives in the bushfires, then 200 more in the north coast floods the following year, and another 800 in further flooding. He had 300 hives euthanized in a red zone of the varroa outbreak and lost another 2-300 due to mismanagement associated with the outbreak. Although he was reimbursed for the hives that were euthanized, he was only paid what the hives were worth, and not recompensed for the income that they would have generated. He had another 600 hives in the purple zone, and reckons he lost about $1 million by having bees caught up in that area.

Today’s very special guest on the Bees with Ben podcast is Corinne Jordan from The Bee Lady

Apiaries (visit honeybeelady.com). Corinne founded this family-owned business in 2008 after initially

researching beekeeping as a potential vocation for her son (who subsequently proved to be allergic

to bee venom) and then developing a passion for honey bees herself! Located about halfway

between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, at the mouth of the Logan River, she is blessed with near

perfect weather and an extended beekeeping season. This suited her interest in breeding queens,

and around 2012 she decided to refocus from honey production (with an apiary containing 50-100

hives) to selective breeding and queen production. In her ideal climate, queen breeding can take

place just about all year round.

Corinne says it takes determination, resilience, good record keeping and keen observational skills to

be a successful queen breeder, as well as fine motor control, and that the bees must always come

first. She says that it requires a lot of effort for little financial reward, but that the greatest rewards

are derived through resultant stock improvements. She tells Ben that breeding is an evolving activity,

since it is impossible to focus on a range of traits at any one time; she is currently working on

resistance to chalkbrood and EFB. All her breeding is conducted by instrumental insemination. She

catches the drones on their return from mating flights, then extracts the semen and inserts this into

virgin queens that have been first anaesthetised with carbon dioxide. The queens generally start to

lay just 5 days later. Corinne produces an average of about 150 queens per season, and still to this

day struggles with introducing the artificially inseminated queens to their hives, as colonies often do

not recognise them as they would a queen that has undergone a normal mating flight.

In her short down season (usually between May to July), one of Corinne’s pastimes is to catch up on

bee research around the world. It was in this way that she discovered the work of Dr Kaira Wagoner

(of the University of North Carolina) on varroa sensitive hygiene. Essentially, this refers to the ability

of some bees to detect the presence of the varroa mite in brood, whereupon they uncap the cells

and remove infected larvae, thereby breaking the mites’ breeding cycle. One of the difficulties in

selecting for varroa resistance in Australia has always been that we have had no active mite

population, however, Corinne remained intrigued by the prospect of breeding resistant stock (she

had been selecting for hygienic behaviour in general since 2014), in part since she was convinced

that varroa would one day inevitably reach Australia. Dr Wagoner’s research identified elevated

levels of 2 hydrocarbons in brood infected with varroa; she managed to synthesize these compounds

and produce a spray which could be applied to brood capping. Bees which exhibit varroa sensitive

hygiene (VSH) will recognise the odour of these chemicals just as if varroa was present and eliminate

the brood accordingly. This is something of a game changer since it does not require the presence of

the mites to test for VSH. Corinne subsequently reached out to Dr Wagoner and has been included in

field tests for the spray. Initial tests indicate that about 4% of honey bee colonies exhibit VSH,

however Corinne is now seeking funding for large-scale trials - she estimates it will cost about

$250,000 for the first year, and has set up a special website for the project, beegenetics.com

Corinne is well placed to conduct this research with a number of unique assets. She has a proven

track record, insemination skills and an apiary with high quality stock. She has the support of

industry groups as well as 'Flow' and will donate the resultant queens to raise further funds.

If you are able to assist with this vital project, please head to beegenetics.com for furthe

Ben’s guest in this episode of the Bees with Ben podcast is Simon Wynn-Taylor from Steritech. The

company’s website (steritech.com.au) details some of the history of this family-owned Australian

business, which emerged in Melbourne in the 1970s as the pioneer for gamma irradiation processing

and has continued to pave the way for sterilization and decontamination processing. Steritech now

operates 3 gamma irradiation plants and 6 ethylene oxide sterilization chambers across 4 sites in

Melbourne, New South Wales and Queensland, and is the most prominent contract sterilization and

decontamination processor in the Asia-Pacific region, and one of the world’s largest. The business

services an extensive variety of industries and companies worldwide and routinely processes over

1,000 different products.

For the agricultural sector, this means the safe and effective elimination of contamination and pests,

in order to meet biosecurity and quarantine requirements and allow export both within Australia

and overseas. Steritech introduced the first whole pallet irradiator customised to treat fresh fruits

and vegetables in the world, located in Queensland. The facility provides phytosanitary treatments

for fresh produce that does not require the cold chain to be broken during treatment and is a

valuable tool for pursuing the highest possible quality and freshness.

Similarly, Steritech’s sterilization processes have important applications in the fields of medicine,

pharmaceuticals and cosmetics by minimizing any risks associated with microbiological

contamination. The company provides essential treatments for imported goods, as well as assisting

to keep a large range of pet foods and packaging also free from contamination.

But what about beekeepers? Well, gamma radiation has been proven to be the most effective

method of eliminating pathogens and insects from contaminated equipment, meaning that in many

instances beekeepers can avoid the costly exercise of replacing hives. Gamma irradiation kills small

hive beetle, American foulbrood and European foulbrood, amongst other pests, and is used by many

beekeepers as an important form of regular maintenance.

Incidentally, it was back in 1982, during a large outbreak of AFB, that Steritech was involved in the

first commercial gamma irradiation of bee boxes in the world, when 1,400 boxes were treated as an

alternative to simply burning them. Since then, Steritech has successfully treated hundreds of

thousands of hives, and the process is recognized by all relevant state departments as a proven

method of eliminating AFB and EFB. Unlike chemical treatments, which may not reach every part of

the equipment, gamma irradiation penetrates all areas of the bee equipment and leaves no

residues.

Ben says he gets about half a dozen pallets ‘zapped’ per year and has been using the process for

many years. Simon operates from the relatively new facility in Maryfield, on the northern outskirts

of Melbourne, which is situated about 20 minutes from the large fresh produce market at Epping.

Sterilization treatments are particularly instrumental in preventing the spread of fruit fly and thereby

ensuring that local produce can be exported to other important markets. Simon says the concrete

bunker at Maryfield which ensures that all radiation is contained has walls up to 5 metres thick, and

that the amount of concrete used in its construction was equivalent to one concrete truck every 30

minutes for 30 days! He says it is important to remember that Steritech is happy to service all

customers - down to the smallest of beekeepers. And the strangest thing he has had to treat? It’s

hard to beat the Swedish metal band whose guitars had to be irradiated since they were covered in

animal blood! For further details visit steritech.com.au