Plea for beekeeper help

Dugald Saunders visits Griffith to plead for beekeeper help | Area News | August 12 2025

Transcript

00:00In the top rock as well, in the bump here.

00:03That's a good one.

00:05Yeah, they're pretty nice.

00:07It's got a fresh white larvae in there.

00:09Yeah.

00:11That's a fire to cut.

00:15So how many would there be in a fire?

00:18Well, the reason I'm here is really to support our apiarists once again

00:22and call for some meaningful support for the job that they do day in, day out.

00:27And being here in Griffith with literally tens of thousands of hives here

00:32is a great way of highlighting the importance of bees to not just almonds as an industry,

00:38but vegetables of all kinds, canola.

00:40In fact, one in every three mouthfuls of food that we consume requires a bee.

00:46Yeah.

00:47It's fresh.

00:48What's that?

00:49Give me G.

00:50Fresh is a cat coming in.

00:51Yeah.

00:56Beekeepers are really finding it tough to deal with varroa,

00:59especially coming out of winter with the autumn being so dry down the south

01:02and challenging times.

01:03And beekeepers starting to or trying to work out how the varroa might work

01:08and what treatments to do.

01:09It's a really challenging time.

01:11So any help with subsidised treatments would be much appreciated.

01:14And as Dougal said about more access to public land,

01:19it's a massive part of our industry.

01:21We rely on them heavily.

01:23In Australia, New South Wales,

01:25that Australian honey in the supermarket is good.

01:28You are supporting Australian beekeepers when you buy that Australian logo honey.

01:31So I highly encourage everyone to look for that when they're buying from the supermarket.

01:35You are supporting Australian beekeepers.