My name's Dr Cooper Schouten and I’m a honeybee researcher at Southern Cross University and I’m
also a beekeeper as you can see. I’m passionate about beekeepers because lots of my friends are
beekeepers overseas and I’ve been working closely with the Australian Centre for International
agricultural research on programs to improve the productivity, profitability and resilience of
these rural beekeepers in the Pacific region and particularly in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. There's
a whole range of different issues that span from honeybee biosecurity and pests and diseases of
honeybees honeybee nutrition so looking at floral calendars and what's in flower because that
ultimately meant you know indicates and determines your management practices as a beekeeper
and there's also lots of challenges regarding sort of the marketing economics and also trying to
make this an inclusive enterprise as well for women in marginalized groups who don't own land.
There's lots of amazing things that beekeeping has to offer in terms of a livelihood opportunity for
beekeepers here in Australia and also overseas but it's important that we understand that just
like any other type of livestock bees require attention to nutrition and pests and diseases,
and the technologies that are available to make it a sustainable and productive enterprise.
So the role of a beekeeper is multiple there's lots of things that you're looking for when you're
opening a hive you're looking at how strong the colony is, whether there's any pests and diseases
you're looking for they've got pollen they're seeing if they've got nectar and seeing how much
of it they have checking whether they need space or whether they need to you know they need more
space because they're running out or maybe they need less because it's getting cold and there's
not enough food coming in so as a beekeeper you're looking out for these things all the time.
It's not just about honey ultimately if you don't have any bees you're not going to
produce any honey you're not going to have any money that's just the story that's how it goes
and that actually the first part of that equation is trees – no trees no bees no honey no money
but I’ve actually found the queen bee on this one
so often when you're looking for the queen bee she should be in the middle of the hive where
in the centre of the brood cluster and she's slightly larger than the rest of the other bees
just go to a spot where it's kind of like finding a needle in a haystack.
You're actually looking for a movement now that's slightly different to the other bees, rather
than the shape in lots of ways. All the other worker bees will actually move out of her way
we can see her just moving across the frame there she's sticking her head into a cell.
And she'll lay up to 2,000 eggs a day it's more than her own body weight
and lots of people think that the queen is the boss of the hive and that this is a monarchy
but it's not true. It's actually one of the most purest forms of a democracy
these workers will determine whether she lives or whether she dies when it's time to have a new mom
and she's not being productive or looking after them well and they also cast decisions and votes
using sounds and noises um bumps and vibrations but ultimately the biggest
one is through dancing this is the waggle dance. They'll communicate a distance relative to the
sun when they come out of the hive to indicate the location of those flowering resources or
whatever else it might be they might be collecting water if the temperature gets ho.
They can they work together to be able to create the best possible solution
you know they're always it's very selfless you know if the honeybee gets sick it doesn't hang
around you know it's like with coronvirus at the moment you know they're not willing to
risk everyone else if they're sick they leave the hive and they go and isolate themselves. Sometimes
they don't come back but that's just the way that they do for the greater good of the um the colony.
You can actually pick her up gently you can pick up a queen bee by the thorax.
So I just got a sting in my finger And that's bee venom and I’m just
going to flick that out like that so that's how you get rid of a beesting!
Yeah you got to be willing to get stung as a beekeeper there's no denying that if you
buy bees you will get stung but ultimately over time you get used to it it starts to hurt less
I’m not thinking about being stung I’m thinking about how healthy my bees are
I want to make sure they have enough food and they're not sick so that's more of a priority.
I think also when you start to understand livestock systems you know you and listen to
what the bees are saying then you get stung less. I don't bump the hive around I don't open them on
a cold day. I don't do it when they're hungry just like me you know if I’m if I’m not eating and it's
cold day I'll get pretty cranky too! So it's just about reading people and
reading bees ultimately so for lots of beekeepers they don't wear gloves because
they probably feel that if they get stung it's them doing something wrong they haven't listened
to the hive or they're pushing it too far but also because it enables you to be much more dexterous
if I want to pick up this queen bee I’m not going to be able to do it in a very nice way
with gloves on, I’m probably going to hurt her so I don't want to do that. It also means I can
clean my hands between hives that means I’ve got a bit of a barrier system between hives because
these girls can get sick just like people and we want to try and reduce that pest and disease
sort of interaction between the different hives.