Who makes 54kg/hive?

[Lone]

I emailed the honey council to hear things straight from the bee's mouth, so to speak.

My email:
Firstly, the voting instruction form sent with the registration renewal was the first I'd heard of the honey levy. Maybe this information can be made available to newly registered beekeepers within the DPI pack. (Although I am a long way off making 600kg/year)

Secondly, how is it proposed that funds be raised from hobbyists, and how will they be spent on hobbyists?

Most importantly, are honey imports charged a levy? Surely imports are one of the greatest threats to the honey industry? It is hard to imagine we cannot be self-sufficient here.

Reply:
Currently unless you are selling 600kgs of honey a year you do not have to pay the levy.  Most beekeepers supply a honey packer who pays on the beekeepers behalf.

 

The best way to receive information is to be a member of a beekeeping club.  Is there one near you that you can attend?

 

Have noted your comments about having information sent to beekeepers in the registration pack.

 

Most hobbyists do not currently pay the levy as they are well under the threshold.  Funds raised will go towards a Biosecurity Plan and employing a Biosecurity Officer in each State.  This will benefit all beekeepers.  The current levies provide research which benefits all beekeepers.  So even thought the hobbyist beekeeper is not paying the current levy they are benefitting from any research that is carried out.

 

Unfortunately we cannot levy imported honey.  We have asked Government about this and it currently cannot be done. 

 

[CJ]

23 splits, CJ??

Lone

Yeah Lone, we made 23 nucs this year. The last round was probably pushing a little hard (lesson learned) - didn't want to feed as much as we have but all good, and we have since consolidated 4 of the nucs back into other hives; so we've ended up at 21 for the year.

CJ

[rawfind]

23 splits, CJ??

Kanga,  I guess there is no such thing as free honey.  I wonder how they propose to spend it ON hobby beekeepers.  Perhaps to raise more revenue from them?  I suppose the first thing will be to help fund our premier's 70 grand pay rise?

Lone

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

if there is ever a time to chose to allow more regulation or less regulation, trust me, and others in the states here, choose less regulation. does matter if it is against you or others, or you even think you may want it. Do not allow it, and stop it if you can, or it will just be another brick in the wall my friends.

[chriso38]

This is what stinks  :-x, At the moment the government is about to either sell or lease our ports to private company's, once this happens the whole " bio security thing" will go down the drain, what private company will give a dam about
" bio security" of the port? Willthey let government inspector's do their job, as they continue to do so now?
Also when varroa mite lands here will the honey bee council take responsibility for the extra cost of dealing with it?
Will the honey bee council discount varroa treatment so the industry will still be viable?
Did anyone take responsibility when Hive beetle landed here? NO! we as beekeepers have had to wear the cost and effort to try and control the beetle.
So they want to take peoples money to further Reasearch and development..... hmmm.. Until they guarantee people that they will actually get something in return, not just a bunch or big words and all that crap, well all I can say we are still fighting the beetle, and soon varroa.. And they say that they asked
the government  to levy imported honey and it cannot be done... well that tops it off for me on the "Load of crap list"
If they want people to give there hard earned money, well maybe if the honey bee council actually showed a bit of "clout " when it comes to looking after the industry and the people who keeps it running, then maybe people would not be upset. I gather if honey prices were better then no one would complain as much.. just makes the industry more viable in the long term... Some input from other Aussies on the issues and my comments would be grateful..

[kalium]

This is what stinks  :-x, At the moment the government is about to either sell or lease our ports to private company's, once this happens the whole " bio security thing" will go down the drain, what private company will give a dam about
" bio security" of the port? Willthey let government inspector's do their job, as they continue to do so now?
Also when varroa mite lands here will the honey bee council take responsibility for the extra cost of dealing with it?

I would've thought that part of any such lease or sale agreements would include agreements about continuation
of bio-security efforts. I could be wrong, but in my view that would be logical.

Will the honey bee council discount varroa treatment so the industry will still be viable?
Did anyone take responsibility when Hive beetle landed here? NO! we as beekeepers have had to wear the cost and effort to try and control the beetle.
So they want to take peoples money to further Reasearch and development..... hmmm.. Until they guarantee people that they will actually get something in return, not just a bunch or big words and all that crap, well all I can say we are still fighting the beetle, and soon varroa..

I've been meaning to ask about this for a while. I'd be interested to hear about the varroa issue from commercial operators.
In the US there are more commercial hives then there have ever been, despite CCD, varroa, SHB etc.
It does usually mean more work for the bee keeper, but they seem to manage. Apparently, pretty much all of their
feral honey bee hives have been wiped out though.

IIRC in Australia about 30% of pollination happens from feral honey bees and other insects (my memory is a bit hazy on this one, but it is a significant
chunk regardless). I've heard reports that pollination services are on the increase already here in Australia. So, when we do get varroa,
won't the biggest beneficiary be the commercial operators? The feral honey bees will be wiped out, and our commercial operators will adapt.
I'm guessing the demand for pollinators will grow even further as a result.

I guess a big loser might be our live bee export market, as we would no longer be varroa free.

And they say that they asked
the government  to levy imported honey and it cannot be done... well that tops it off for me on the "Load of crap list"

Levying imports can be a pretty big deal. You can be reported to the WTO, and/or have retaliatory levies put on your
exports. Countries with plenty of clout and massive pressure from large lobbying groups domestically take a calculated
decision that putting on levies is worth it (e.g. USA, etc).

The AHBIC is nowhere near a large enough lobbying group, nor is Australia a big enough player to swing its weight around

If they want people to give there hard earned money, well maybe if the honey bee council actually showed a bit of "clout " when it comes to looking after the industry and the people who keeps it running, then maybe people would not be upset. I gather if honey prices were better then no one would complain as much.. just makes the industry more viable in the long term... Some input from other Aussies on the issues and my comments would be grateful..

[kalium]

if there is ever a time to chose to allow more regulation or less regulation, trust me, and others in the states here, choose less regulation. does matter if it is against you or others, or you even think you may want it. Do not allow it, and stop it if you can, or it will just be another brick in the wall my friends.

I can't speak to regulation in general, or what kind of walls it produces, but recently regulation seemed to finally get its boots
on and do something useful.

Something that the AHBIC seems to have been chasing down for a while(?) are the merchants of cheaply imported 'stuff' that
has been marketed as honey and as Australian  (albeit not explicitly, as that would be a little too brazen for even them).

A month ago the sellers of 'Victoria Honey' were fined $30k. The product is neither from our southern state of Victoria,
nor is it actually honey. It is imported from Turkey and most likely some kind of corn syrup. The ACCC have apparently put companies
engaging in similarly mischievous conduct on notice.

So hopefully there will be a reduction in that kind of carry on in our domestic honey market. Most likely without the AHBIC and most
certainly  without that kind of regulation in place, the merchants who seek to confuse their customers and misrepresent their
product would be even more ubiquitous than they already are.

[BBC APIARY]

Here, in SA, our levies are included in our annual apiary registration, and if you have 20 or more hives, you must send a sample for analysis,which is included in the registration price. Our Bee-Qual training was highly susidised. Given the bio-security issues for bees in Australia, and the nature of free enterprise, and the user-pays ideology of our State and Commonwealth governments, levies are inevitable.

The  Imported Honey subject is a whole other issue for a different post. If only more of the bee-hive  registration monies collected were truly used for a much-improved AQIS!

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

I can't speak to regulation in general, or what kind of walls it produces, but recently regulation seemed to finally get its boots
on and do something useful.

Something that the AHBIC seems to have been chasing down for a while(?) are the merchants of cheaply imported 'stuff' that
has been marketed as honey and as Australian  (albeit not explicitly, as that would be a little too brazen for even them).

A month ago the sellers of 'Victoria Honey' were fined $30k. The product is neither from our southern state of Victoria,
nor is it actually honey. It is imported from Turkey and most likely some kind of corn syrup. The ACCC have apparently put companies
engaging in similarly mischievous conduct on notice.

So hopefully there will be a reduction in that kind of carry on in our domestic honey market. Most likely without the AHBIC and most
certainly  without that kind of regulation in place, the merchants who seek to confuse their customers and misrepresent their
product would be even more ubiquitous than they already are.

For every one thing they do, there will be numerous things they mess up. But hey, it's your country, support it as you will, just saying once you start removing things from the peoples hands, and allow govt. to come in as middle-men with the ability to fine or charge fees, you will never see the end of it, and it will keep increasing. Truth is this other company that was fined probably doesn't care too much about a lousy $30,000.  But best of wishes anyways.

[rawfind]

if there is ever a time to chose to allow more regulation or less regulation, trust me, and others in the states here, choose less regulation. does matter if it is against you or others, or you even think you may want it. Do not allow it, and stop it if you can, or it will just be another brick in the wall my friends.

I agree, and look what the government did about the Asian bee incursion in cairns, they pulled the plug leaving it to the beekeepers
to do the work,the more you allow the government to intervene the more they will control every aspect, look at the beesites closed in
our forests closed by a government department, what do they do about pesticides  or gmo ?