Beekeepers on varroa mite strategy | September 26, 2023 - video Dailymotion

Beekeepers at the Kempsey varroa mite information session share their thoughts on the DPI moving from an eradication to a management strategy.

Transcript

00:00 I think we're getting there.

00:24 I think DPI are doing their best.

00:28 At the moment we've got a reprieve.

00:31 A lot of beehive people have had a reprieve when it comes to their hives getting wiped

00:38 out and we were going to lose ours on Monday.

00:41 That's not going to occur now.

00:43 They're coming in with miticide strips and I believe they've got a plan in action ready

00:49 to roll out to save the industry.

00:53 So while we do welcome the movement from eradication to management, it's far too late for many

01:00 beekeeping families.

01:03 In the last month a lot of people have had thousands of hives destroyed.

01:07 For us personally we've had two thirds of our business destroyed in the last two weeks

01:12 before they're making the decision to go to management.

01:16 Once it hit the almond farms in various locations within New South Wales, even I knew they wouldn't

01:22 have the resources to be able to keep up with the eradication.

01:26 So we personally lost 484 hives.

01:28 We know other families that have lost the whole 1300 or the whole 1400.

01:34 That will take years and years to rebuild and a lot of cost.

01:38 It's too late now.

01:41 Because bees are swarming now, this time of the year, it'll be just everywhere in the

01:45 bush.

01:46 They swarm out of that hive there and go up in the trees and start off a new hive and

01:50 they just keep spreading everywhere.

01:52 The other countries still in management and they've had Varroa mite for 20 years.

01:56 Some countries eradicating the bees weren't working, it was still spreading.

02:01 So if we had time they went to management.

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