'It's only a matter of time': beekeepers swarm together in face of varroa threat

Julia Hutabarat and Shelby Ashelford's hives have remained mite-free thus far. Though they said "it's only a matter of time" before their bees become infected.

"Varroa is kind of circling around us, but hasn't reached us, touch wood. We've been lucky so far," Ms Ashelford said.

Varroa destructor mites, also known as varroa are little red mites that attack and feed on honey bees, causing weakness and death of colonies.

"The bees produce less, so it weakens the whole hive to the point where they can't look after themselves and defend themselves," Ms Hutabarat said.

"So, you end up with a colony that dies because it can't cope with stress from the varroa mites."

Ms Hutabarat and Ms Ashelford formed their group the Varroa Warriors for commercial and recreational beekeepers to come together during what they called a "confusing time".

"One of the problems is that varroa is all so new, nobody really knows what we're supposed to be doing," Ms Hutabarat said.

"We're really wanting to open up the conversation, to arm ourselves with knowledge, so we're making informed decisions on how we care for our bees."

When varroa mites infest, beekeepers will have to reconsider their approach to managing and caring for their bees.

Ms Ashelford hopes that the group can provide information and support to beekeepers in the region.

"Some beekeepers are thinking 'this is too hard. I can't do this anymore. I'm gonna get out of this', but if we can support them, they may not feel so overwhelmed," Ms Ashelford said.

"We don't know the answers, we don't know what the solution is. Let's just try and figure this out."

The mite, first spotted in Australia in 2022 in Newcastle, brought devastating news for beekeepers.

"Every single country that varroa mites have infested has had huge beehive losses, so we see a future where there's going to be a lot of loss," they said.

Varroa was then discovered in the Gumble forest area just outside of Manildra, west of Molong by a commercial beekeeper.

Since bees can fly up to five kilometres from their hive, the mites are likely to have infested other hives in the region.

"An infested bee might land on a little flower together with another bee and the mite can actually jump to the other bee and go to a new hive," they said.

To determine whether a hive has any varroa mites, the Department of Primary Industries currently requires beekeepers to undertake a 16 week mandatory alcohol wash or sugar shake, to check for mites.

"Scoop up about half a cup of bees and put it in a little jar with some holes in it, then add in half a cup of icing sugar," Ms Hutabarat said.

"Then you sort of give it a shake and rotate it, so all the bees get covered with the sugar and it's supposed to dislodge the mite."

"So when you sort of the icing sugar comes out of the holes, you're supposed to see the little mites."

Ms Hutabarat said she loves watching the bees on the flowers in her garden and she "doesn't see them as livestock".

"I see them as almost as a spiritual being where we need to really trust that they know what they're doing," she said.

Both Ms Hutabarat and Ms Ashelford said bees are a "resilient species" and one way they could potentially survive varroa is through grooming themselves.

"They're very clean animals," they said.

"When they groom themselves, they usually knock off the varroa mite."

"And if we're interfering, and especially with chemicals, we're taking away their opportunity to sort it out themselves."

The Varroa Warriors are working with scientists to understand the genetics that cause bees to groom to see how they can make bees more resilient to varroa.

"I've been reaching out to all of the scientists that I can find that are doing the research and we've had a really amazing response from all of them. They've been so excited that they're going to be included in the conversation," Ms Ashelford said.

The group has recruited members across Orange and has invited beekeepers to join from as far as Dubbo, Taree and Lismore.

The Varroa Warrior meeting will be held on Sunday May 19 from 1pm - 4pm at Orange Agricultural Institute Training Centre, on 1447 Forest Rd Orange. Tickets are available here.