this Gippsland forest is usually home to
more than 100 beehives just standing
here now I feel a degree of of numbness
third generation beekeeper Ian Cain lost
nearly a fifth of his hives in the fires
but he says the real problem is
destruction of the forests that feed the
bees which will take at least ten years
to regenerate a huge impact on the
beekeeping industry and that of food
security for a number of years in
Melbourne bees in rooftop hives across
the city have become Restless because of
thick smoke including these on top of
the Emporium the state governments
launched the country's first
surveillance system called bee max to
help protect bees from pests and
diseases it is a significant development
for Victoria it's definitely going to
improve our bee biosecurity and our
emergency response capability more than
9,000 beekeepers across the state will
share information in real-time about the
condition and number of their hives an
emergency alert will automatically be
sent out to registered beekeepers to
warn of deadly diseases getting them all
logging data and starting to keep
information like this can really help
possibly even catch an outbreak of a
disease as it's happening
the urban rooftop beekeeper has been
around for centuries in Paris but these
high-rise hives are relatively new to
Melbourne there are more than 600
thousand bees here on this rooftop alone
and they can travel up to five
kilometres to pollinate the city's
plants new laws also require beekeepers
to check their house for diseases at
least twice a year they'll be looking
for exotic parasites like the varroa
mite which has the potential to wipe out
the country's entire bee population what
a lot of people don't understand
66% of our horticultural products are
reliant on bees
keeping homes healthy into the future
Bridget Rollerson ABC News
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