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Why Queensland’s Farms Are Suddenly So Quiet

Queensland beekeeper inspecting a honey bee hive for signs of Varroa mite

Something is missing from farms across South East Queensland right now.

The buzz.

At Ashbern Farms, where our beautiful organic strawberries are grown, there would normally be bees busily bouncing between the flowers. But lately, the farm has been strangely quiet.

The same thing is happening at an avocado farm near Nambour, where local beekeeper Phil from Mt Kilcoy Honey provides hives for pollination. When he visited recently, he couldn’t find a single bee on the property.

Not one.

This isn’t just about honey. This is about the future of our food.

So, what exactly is a Varroa mite?

Varroa destructor - which sounds like a villain from a children’s movie - is a tiny reddish-brown parasite about the size of a sesame seed.

It attaches itself to European honey bees and their developing young, feeding on them, weakening them and spreading viruses throughout the hive.

When the mite population becomes too high, an otherwise healthy colony can collapse extremely quickly.

Varroa was first detected in Australia at the Port of Newcastle in June 2022. Authorities initially attempted to eradicate it, but eventually accepted that it had spread too far. Australia then moved from trying to eliminate Varroa to learning how to manage it.

It has since spread across eastern Australia and is now affecting beekeepers throughout Queensland, including here in South East Queensland and as far north as Far North Queensland.

Our Australian native bees aren’t directly affected by Varroa, which is a small piece of good news. But much of our commercial food production relies on managed European honey bees to provide pollination at the scale farmers need.

And those colonies are disappearing… fast.

This is what it looks like on the ground

We spoke with Chez from Bellmere Honey and Phil from Mt Kilcoy Honey to find out what has been happening locally.

Chez has lost around 70 hives.

Phil has lost between 130 and 140.

Other beekeepers have lost hundreds, and in some cases, thousands.

For Chez, the losses have been so significant that Bellmere Honey has stepped away from commercial pollination contracts. 

Some colonies can collapse in a matter of weeks when mite numbers are high and viruses are already circulating through the hive.

And when a beekeeper loses a hive, it isn’t simply a box of bees that disappears.

It is years of work, honey production, pollination income and a living colony they have spent countless hours caring for.

Phil told us about one location with 40 hives, each worth around $400 and capable of generating approximately $1,000 each per year.

They are all gone. 

Keeping bees alive is becoming a very expensive job

Before Varroa, beekeepers could generally leave healthy colonies for longer periods between inspections.

Now, the hives need to be checked far more regularly.

For Phil, that can mean driving an hour or two each way to reach them. Add fuel, labour, packaging and the cost of treatments, and suddenly keeping bees alive becomes a very expensive exercise.

The commonly recommended synthetic strips can cost approximately 20-30 per hive. Multiply that across hundreds of hives and the maths becomes uncomfortable very quickly, particularly when the treatments don’t work as well as expected.

Queensland authorities have now confirmed that Varroa resistant to several synthetic treatments has already been detected in South East Queensland.

That’s the problem with relying too heavily on one approach: Varroa is annoyingly good at adapting.

Is there another way?

Phil is now using an approved oxalic acid-based treatment. Oxalic acid occurs naturally in foods such as spinach and rhubarb.

Chez has also been trialling a different approach using stinging nettles, which she says is showing promising early results in her own hives. She strongly believes we should be exploring a much wider range of options rather than continually reaching for stronger synthetic chemicals like the ones the government has recommended.

Some of these chemical treatments can also come with withholding periods, during which honey cannot be harvested or sold. This is not only concerning for the health impacts this could have when we consume the honey, but it also creates another financial blow for beekeepers who are already losing hives and income.

No bees means a lot more than no honey

Bees help pollinate many of the foods we eat, including berries, apples, avocados, melons, macadamias, almonds and numerous seed crops.

Around 35% of Australian crops rely on bees for pollination.

Many fruit, nut and vegetable crops depend heavily on bees to produce a good harvest, and fewer bees can mean poorer pollination, smaller yields and lower-quality produce.

Farmers may then need to pay more to bring managed hives onto their properties, at the exact moment there are fewer healthy hives available.

Those costs don’t simply vanish. They move through the food system and can eventually mean less produce and higher prices for all of us.

So when a strawberry or avocado farm becomes unusually quiet, we should all be paying attention.

Varroa isn’t the only thing bees are battling

Varroa may be the most immediate threat to European honey bees, but it is being piled on top of several existing pressures.

Habitat loss, poor nutrition, extreme weather, disease and pesticide exposure can all affect pollinator health.

Certain insecticides are designed to kill insects, so unsurprisingly, they can also harm bees.

Systemic pesticides such as neonicotinoids are absorbed by plants and can travel through their leaves, flowers, pollen and nectar.

Even the products used around our homes can have unintended consequences. Spraying flowering plants while bees are foraging may expose the very insects we need those flowers to attract.

At a time when bee colonies are already weakened by Varroa, reducing these avoidable pressures matters more than ever.

The bees have enough going on. They really don’t need us making their job harder.

“Nobody knows what’s going on”

One of the most worrying parts of our conversation with Phil was how little the general public seems to know about what is happening.

“Nobody knows what’s going on. Even in schools, you would expect them to be teaching kids about where their food comes from and the importance of bees in our food supply, but no one knows a thing.”

Beekeepers are an essential part of agriculture, yet many feel they still aren’t recognised or supported as farmers.

They care for livestock. They travel long distances. They provide pollination services that farmers depend on. And without them, many of our favourite foods would become far harder and more expensive to grow.

The Queensland Government has funded Varroa research and innovation projects, which is important. But beekeepers like Phil are also calling for direct, practical financial help.

Research may give us better solutions in the future.

But treatments, fuel and hive inspections need to be paid for now.

What can the rest of us do?

None of us can solve the Varroa crisis from our backyards, but we can make life a little easier for the bees and the people caring for them.

We can:

  • Ask our local and state representatives what practical support is being provided to beekeepers managing Varroa.
  • Buy genuine local honey and support the beekeepers producing it.
  • Choose organic and spray-free food where possible.
  • Avoid spraying flowering plants, especially while bees are active.
  • Plant a variety of bee-friendly flowers that bloom throughout the year.
  • Leave out a shallow water source with pebbles or sticks for bees to land on.
  • Teach our kids where food comes from and why pollinators matter.

Most importantly, we can start treating beekeepers as what they are: an essential part of our food system.

We need to listen to the silence

Chez and Phil are doing everything they can to protect their remaining colonies.

They are checking hives more often, absorbing rising costs, trialling different treatments and continuing to support the farmers who rely on them.

But they shouldn’t have to carry this alone.

This isn’t simply a bee problem.

It’s a farmer problem, a food affordability problem and, ultimately, a food security problem.

The next time you hear bees buzzing around the garden, stop and listen for a moment.

That little hum is helping to feed us.

And across too many Queensland farms, it is becoming frighteningly quiet.


Sources and further reading

This article includes information shared with us directly by Chez from Bellmere Honey and Phil from Mt Kilcoy Honey, alongside the following sources:


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