When a beehive dies, it doesn’t go quietly. The garden falls silent. The flowers lose their visitors. And something ancient — a relationship between people, place, and pollinators — begins to unravel. In the Northern Rivers, backyard beekeepers have long tended their hives with care and love, producing not just honey, but resilience, knowledge, and community. Now, as Varroa destructor spreads across our region, those hives are vanishing. Wild colonies are collapsing. And small-scale keepers are being asked to bear the emotional and financial cost of saving a species that underpins our food, our biodiversity, and our way of life.

This is more than a beekeeping crisis — it’s a cultural emergency. If we lose our bees, we lose more than pollination. We lose the scent of macadamia blossom in a jar of honey. We lose the hum of spring mornings. We lose the quiet stewardship of people who care for creatures most of us never see. SaveByronBees is our response — a grassroots campaign to protect bees, support local keepers, and rally a community around what truly matters. Because when the bees go, everything changes. But together, we can change the ending.

In the soft hum of honeybees, we hear a story older than Australia itself. A story of quiet labour, blooming orchards, and the hidden life between petal and pollen. But now, that hum is growing faint. The arrival of Varroa destructor — a deadly parasite — threatens not just the bees, but the keepers, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them. This isn’t just a beekeeping crisis. It’s a food crisis. A biodiversity crisis. A cultural crisis.

This is a call to protect what we love — before it disappears.

I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.Australia’s love affair with honeybees began in the 1820s, when the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) first arrived on our shores. Since then, bees have become an invisible part of daily life — pollinating crops, enriching ecosystems, and connecting people to place.

Here in the Northern Rivers, honeybees thrive alongside a stunning array of native pollinators. But while native bees are essential for local biodiversity, their small size and short flight range mean they can’t service large commercial farms. European honeybees can — and do.

With the ability to travel kilometres per flight, honeybees are responsible for 65–80% of all crop pollination in Australia.

• 35+ commercial crops rely on honeybee pollination — including almonds, apples, berries, melons, and canola.
• In the Northern Rivers, crops like macadamias, avocados, and blueberries depend on managed pollination.
• The economic value of pollination in Australia exceeds $14 billion annually.
• Of this, only $1 billion comes from managed hives — the rest relies on wild and feral bees.

But now, that balance is breaking.

The spread of Varroa Destructor across New South Wales is reshaping everything.

This parasite attacks bees directly, weakening colonies and spreading devastating viruses. Feral bee colonies — which provide the bulk of pollination in Australia — can’t be monitored or treated. Once infected, they collapse within 2–3 years.

Experts warn that Varroa will wipe out feral bee populations in affected areas. That’s over $13 billion in pollination services disappearing — leading to lower harvests, higher prices, and real risks to food security.

• Less fruit on trees
• Poorer quality produce
• Rising food prices
• Fewer seeds and reduced biodiversity

Honeybees don’t just feed us through pollination — they also gift us four incredible substances:

🍯 Honey – nature’s perfect sweetener, flavoured by the flowers of the season
🕯️ Beeswax – essential for candles, food wraps, balms, and crafts
🌿 Propolis – a powerful plant resin with natural antimicrobial properties
🌼 Pollen – rich in protein and essential to bee and human nutrition

And these treasures often come not from factories, but from small and backyard beekeepers. Quietly tending hives on balconies, farms, and bush blocks, these keepers are the true stewards of resilience, flavour, and local genetics.

Managing varroa isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s a deeply personal one.

Beekeepers are now required to:

• Inspect hives every 3–5 weeks
• Purchase and apply chemical treatments
• In many cases, euthanise bees to test for mite loads

These aren’t just hives. They’re companions. Communities. The result of years of patient care and breeding.

Every loss is personal. Every inspection is painful. Every treatment is a toll on time, money, and the heart.

And most of this burden falls on small-scale keepers — people who keep bees not for profit, but for love.

Mass-market honey is often blended, imported, and heavily processed. It rarely tells a story.

But local honey? The kind made in Mullumbimby backyards or along Nimbin’s ridgelines? That’s different.

It smells like eucalypt and tea tree. It holds the memory of weather and landscape. It’s made with care — by bees and beekeepers alike.

A single 500g jar of honey takes:

• 30 billion wingbeats
• A flight path equal to the distance to the moon and back
• Losing a hive isn’t just losing a jar of honey. It’s losing:

Regional flavour
Intergenerational knowledge
Pollination power
Community connection

The Save Byron Bees campaign exists to protect the future of beekeeping in the Northern Rivers and support the people behind the hives.

We’re working to:

• Fund miticide treatments for backyard beekeepers
• Support bee-friendly planting across schools, farms, and public land
• Provide education and community outreach
• Partner with artists, growers, and brands to tell this story
• Celebrate the beauty and brilliance of bees

Varroa destructor is a parasitic mite that feeds on honeybees and reproduces inside their brood. Though smaller than a pinhead, it’s now considered the most destructive pest in global beekeeping.

For decades, Australia was varroa-free — the last major honey-producing country to hold the line. That changed in June 2022, when the mite was first detected at the Port of Newcastle, likely introduced via imported cargo. Despite initial containment efforts, varroa has now spread throughout New South Wales, and it’s here to stay.

Varroa attacks both developing and adult bees by feeding on their fat bodies — organs essential for immune function, nutrient storage, and detoxification. This weakens the bee’s ability to survive and opens the door to viral infections.

While Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) — a major killer of colonies overseas — has not yet been detected in Australia, varroa compromises the bees’ immune system, making them vulnerable to a dozen or more known viruses. The arrival of DWV would be devastating — and experts agree that the risk is rising.

In the meantime, weakened colonies are already more susceptible to common threats like:

🐛 Small hive beetle

🦠 Chalkbrood

🐝 American Foulbrood (AFB)

🐛 Wax moth

Varroa doesn’t kill hives overnight — it destabilises them over months, making them easy targets for these secondary pests and diseases.

The majority of feral or wild honeybee colonies in NSW are expected to die out within 1–2 years of varroa arriving in their area. These hives, once abundant in tree hollows and sheds, have no one to monitor, test, or medicate them.

The loss of wild hives means a sharp decline in:

• Unmanaged crop pollination
  
• Backyard honey harvests
  
• Bee biodiversity and resilience in the landscape

For managed hives, there is still hope — but only with active intervention.

To survive in a varroa-positive environment, beekeepers must now:

• Test every hive every 16 weeks
• Perform alcohol washes or sugar shakes
• Treat regularly with approved miticides
• Monitor for secondary infections and pests
  

This is a radical shift for Australian beekeepers, especially small and backyard keepers. It requires time, knowledge, and money — and without support, many simply won’t manage it.

• Less food.
• Poorer quality fruit and nuts.
• Higher prices at the supermarket.
• Fewer backyard bees and local honey.
• Greater stress on native pollinators and ecosystems.

SaveByronBees exists to help our region adapt — before it’s too late.

We’re:

• Funding miticide packs for backyard beekeepers
• Supporting education and monitoring
• Sharing tools and training
• Building resilience, one hive at a time