Apiarists chase the sweet stuff

Production costs, diseases and workforce retirement pressures over the past decade have whittled the number of Queanbeyan region commercial beekeepers to less than a dozen.

James Kershaw of Sterling Kershaw Co at Gundaroo has migrated 2000 hives, 500 kilometres to West Wyalong on 15 rigid-bodied 12-tonne trucks.

"There's nothing flowering in the forests at home or around Queanbeyan because it's dry, [there's been] no rain at the right time," Mr Kershaw said.

"Every year when it's like this we're chasing honey, so are other beekeepers in the district. It's just the cycle and the whole industry's got to chase it.

"When we bring them back this year we will head straight down to Batemans Bay."

Principal of Weerona Apiaries at Sutton, Neil Bingley, is already there.

Mr Bingley has already taken two thirds of his hives to eucalypt forests near Batemans Bay too, and this week was transporting his last 120 hives there from Ariah Park.

"We've been out around Cootamundra using ground flora and canola which is now on its last legs and some eucalypt," Mr Bingley said.

"It's not too good with the current El Nino and when you're figuring out where to move them you have to think about the cost of fuel."

Conditions are a better on the South Coast because of some good rain since autumn.

It's swarming season and beekeepers have already been out collecting feral colonies after calls from people who have unexpectedly discovered big nests settled too close to their houses for comfort.

The keenest apiarists put the wild bees into new separate hives, then quarantine them for a month to protect the health of their other colonies.

However, Mr Kershaw feels wild bees are more trouble than they're worth and if he comes into contact with feral swarms, he generally avoids them.