AN avid White Gum Valley beekeeper wants to see more “managed” beehives spread through Fremantle’s suburbs to improve the genetics of feral bees and help control disease.

Mark Woodcock floated the idea while giving his annual “swarming season” message for the Herald, saying hives stocked with good queen genetics could provide stronger bees for feral colonies while allowing their health to be monitored.

“There are a huge number of feral hives in any area,” Mr Woodcock said.

“If you go to White Gum Valley Primary School, there must be six just around the school property.”

“The trouble with feral hives is that no one monitors their health, and that’s how disease spreads,” he said.

• Mark Woodcock says more “managed” beehives can make the suburb’s feral bees a better bunch. Photo by Steve Grant

Feral

“Because they’re feral, they can also become more aggressive, which is a problem for local neighbours.”

Local genetics were important because queens bred elsewhere might not be suited to Perth conditions.

“If you buy a queen, it might come from up in the bush areas around Geraldton or further north, and that’s not necessarily the best queen for Perth,” he said.

“You want local genetics.”

Mr Woodcock said queens could also be selected for desirable traits such as calmness, hygiene and honey production, and as they flew out of the hive to mate, it created an opportunity for stronger genetics to spread through the local bee population.

“She does a mating flight over several days,” he said.

“She deliberately goes out to get genetic diversity.”

Mr Woodcock suggested a local university could be drafted in to help roll out the initiative and evaluate its impact.

With the annual swarming season at hand and last year’s memory of a monster hive he had to knock back from removing after discovering it had taken over half a weatherboard wall fresh on his mind, he says owners of older homes can take precautions to avoid the same fate.

He recommends trying to plug any holes that have previously been occupied by bees to smaller than 4 millimetres, and packing them with cloves or a dab of almond oil.

He also urges people to act quickly when they found a swarm, saying advice to ‘wait and see’ could prove costly.

“As soon as the hive has drawn wax, the queen has started laying eggs and they’ve started putting food in, there’s something for them to defend,” he said.

“That’s when they become more aggressive.”

He said early capture reduced the risk of spreading disease.

Mr Woodcock said hives he had checked around Fremantle recently appeared to have relatively little food, as weather could have affected nectar production.

“When the flowers came out, they didn’t produce a lot of nectar. The conditions from nature weren’t quite right,” he said.

by STEVE GRANT