Beekeepers help tackle climate challenges

A passion for the best climate risk management by the Australian beekeeping industry runs in the family, with two NSW beekeepers stepping up to the national Climate Champion program.

Warming climates and unreliable weather patterns will have a great impact on the Australian beekeeping industry. Increasing variability and temperatures provide a challenge to finding the right resources for effective honey and beeswax production. Beekeepers nationwide will get renewed representation and information about strategies and research for managing climate risk as beekeepers Des and Jenan Cannon join the Climate Champion program. They are following on from their daughter Pele’s participation in the program.

The Cannons join 36 Australian farmers from various industries to help get climate research on-ground and assist with developing new climate management tools and technologies.

Des and Jenan say they are looking forward to seeing better strategies for managing climate for the beekeeping industry and climate data that is more accurate and reliable. “Bridging the communication gap between scientists and farmers - that’s such an important step,” Des says.

Unpredictable climate variability has had an observable effect on beekeeping production and practices. In order give their bees access to a variety of flowering plants for a healthy diet, beekeepers traditionally move their hives six to seven times per year.

These moves are based on predictions on pollen production and rainfall. But with changing climates, the need for an accurate prediction of weather patterns becomes ever more important.

“As flower patterns change, beekeepers will have to change their patterns of hive movement in an effort to compensate for altered honey flows,” says Pele.

The Cannon family farm is stretched out over 16 hectares, but they require access to about 20,000 hectares of land and native flora to provide adequate food variety for their hard-working bees.

Rising temperatures and reduced rainfall affect the flowering of trees and whether those flowers have enough nectar for the bees to eat. Bees are also subjected to heat stress and struggle with the temperature maintenance of their hives and turn to collecting water rather than pollen.

“In our experience, we’re seeing honey flows becoming more irregular and unreliable,” says Des.

Accurate weather and pollination data is crucial for the production of honey and beeswax in the face of climate variation.

The Cannon family rely heavily on data released by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to effectively plan their monthly and yearly strategies for optimal honey production and to monitor the weather and flowering patterns over a large area, including both private and public land.

“Temperature and rainfall records and forecasts are crucial for deciding where to take the bees and whether we think the trees are going to produce nectar. We also monitor the weather conditions for bees that way,” says Pele.

Des adds that “as climate variability increases, having good forecasting tools will make it a lot easier for beekeepers”.

The development of new forecasting tools is one of the projected outcomes of the Climate Champion program and will be greatly beneficial to many industries, including beekeeping.

Located in Urila, south-east New South Wales, Des and Jenan join nearby Yass woolgrowers and Climate Champion participants Kathleen Allan and John Ive.

Kathleen operates two properties in Yass, growing superfine merino wool. She says that factors such as climate trends, soil health and pasture production are critical for climate innovation and stability.

Like Des and Jenan, Kathleen is excited about drawing on producers’ experiences and the work on climate variability, and opening communication channels between farmers.

John Ive is a Yass grower of super-fine merino wool. He and wife Robyn have tackled salinity problems by transforming their property with contour banks and fences based on soil type and slope.

For more information about the program: www.climatekelpie.com.au/ask-a-farmer/climate-champion-program.

The Climate Champion program is supported by the Grains Research & Development Corporation, Managing Climate Variability program, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Australian Wool Innovation.