THE last 12 months have been some of the toughest in living memory for honey producers with the drought’s intensity sapping supplies.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Emma Stubbs set up a stall at the Currabubula Christmas markets solely stocking 2017 supplies of honey and told The Leader her enterprise was preparing for its first extraction of the year in mid-December.
“We are about to extract some honey again, this will be our first for the year,” she said.
“We would usually do maybe one every couple of weeks.”
READ MORE:
She said conditions had started to improve, but, overall 2018 had been one of the most difficult years for production in recent memory due to the drought, which the producer wasn’t really prepared for.
“We had a really busy year with the bees last year,” she said.
“You can’t predict what is going to happen every year, we don’t rely on the bees to pay our bills, that’s for sure.”
While honey hit the headlines in 2018 with claims were not the pure 100 per cent honey they claimed to be, Ms Stubbs said it had sharpened the public’s focus on producers and the authenticity of food being sold.
Tamworth producer Tony Eden said 2018 was “non-event” in his book.
“Since the middle of November last year, it's been downhill,” Mr Eden said.
It has descended into one of the worst years in his time as an apiarist.
“I’ve never seen white box trees die in drought before,” he said. “This whole century has been like one long drought with some nice holidays in between.”
He said flowers were especially hard to come by in the region this year and had moved a lot of his bees to the coast.
He didn’t believe the conditions were making a turn for the better, even with some recent rainfall, and said it i would cause problems for 2019.
“We’ve only had 46-47 per cent of the average annual rainfall, so no it’s not turning around,” he said.
“A good dumping of rain would help turn it, but we would need a serious downpour in the next month or two.”