It is vital that honeybee colonies have a good supply of high quality pollen in the autumn. This pollen provides the protein necessary for the winter bees to be produced so that a strong population goes into winter to provide the warmth in the cluster for the colony to survive. Many beekeepers in Victoria are going into winter with low numbers of winter bees due to the second difficult season in a row and there will probably be quite high losses of colonies due to starvation and low bee numbers.
Colonies which make it into spring in good condition may be able to utilize a potential spring flowering of Yellow Gum(Eucalyptus leucoxylon) and a good budding on Yellow Box(Eucalyptus melliodora). Red Stringybark and Blue Gum are other possibilities for next season.