Dear BEE_LINERS and Nick,
 
A brief look at migratory beekeeping OZZIE (Australian) style.
 
A typical beekeeping outfit would own between 500-1500 hives with most
around the 1000 mark.  If you like driving and are willing to shift your
bees 5 to 6 times per year you can almost get honey all year round.  The
best return I've heard of lately was 650 x 300kg drums from 800 hives in
one year returning a bulk honey price of AUD$1.75-$1.80/kg.
 
Typically a beekeeper moves from pollen  to honey and back to pollen and
so on.  Many Australian honey flows can lack good quality pollen and so
tend to wear the bees out (protein wise) although this is not always the
case.
 
A typical cycle in the southern half of the state of Queensland would be
(and those who have maps of Australia)  --  A spring build on the
Eastern Downs or Coastal Ranges (for example find Toowoomba or Warwick
on your map).  For those above the equator remember that September is
the start of spring.
 
The hives are then moved to the western side of the Great Dividing
range onto various Eucalypts such as Ironbark of one species or another.
 Some beekeepers move to the eastern face of the range for costal
species.  This move would put hives in state owned forests around places
like Millmerran, Goonndiwindi, Chinchilla west of the range or Nanango,
Murgon, Kilcoy to the east.
 
The beekeepers will continue to move their hives around (in this case)
the Southeast corner of Queensland until the late autumn at which time
many move their bees west to the channel country.  The channel country
is  area of Australia with a very low rain fall, perhaps only 10 inches
a year.  This area is sometimes naturally irrigated from the far north.
The monsoonal rains that fall on the North (Top) of Australia flow down
through the centre of Australia and often cause flooding of the central
plains (channel country).
 
This channel country is world famous (in Australia) for huge crops of
Yapunyah honey.  The Yapunyah is a short eucalypt that produces large
crops of a very light honey having a natural moisture content of around
15% (try and wipe that off your knife).  It is a truly delicious honey.
 The channel country starts about 1000 km from the coast.  It is mostly
sheep of beef country with low stocking capacity and very large
properties.  One of the largest in this region is 3,500 sq miles in
area.  On your map look for the place names of Thargomindah, Eromanga or
Quilpie.   The bees stay in the channel country until the spring and are
moved back to the coast region or eastern downs.  During the summer
temperature in the channel country can reach as high as 45 degrees
centigrade (in the shade) and so the bees need to be moved away.
 
Remember the above relates to one region of Australia.  Similar
activities are carried out throughout Australia but the target species
may be different.  While a large percentage of the Australian honey crop
is from eucalypts the country produces large crops of clover and other
ground flower.
 
Robert Rice
Apiculture Service Manager (South Island)
Ministry of Agriculture
 
e-mail  [log in to unmask]