The past two honey seasons have been the worst in living memory and there is a severe honey shortage in eastern Australia. Last year’s season was a lot better than the previous year in one significant way. The bees were able to gather enough nectar in autumn to fill their brood chambers with honey and although there wasn’t any excess honey for the beekeeper, there was enough to give the bees good stores for the winter.
The bees are wintering well because they have their own honey to eat to keep warm. This is in sharp contrast to the previous winter when we had to feed the bees sugar to keep them alive. A large number of hives throughout the state starved to death in that winter, whereas the bees should get through to the spring in good condition this year.
This augers well for next season because Yellow Gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon) is now flowering and should continue into the spring, Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora) is well budded and hopefully we will get more honey than recently.