You don't often hear of soldiers in combat studying the art of beekeeping, but that was the case for Tasmanian Robert Stephens.

After he was shot in the hip in World War I, he returned to Tasmania with his apiary books to start up his own honey business.

A century on, his hobby is a household name.

"He spent a lot of time at war in Europe reading about bees," his grandson, Ewan Stephens, said.

"His mum and dad looked after some of his hives and when he returned from the war he bought four acres of land in Mole Creek, where he produced ground flora honey."

Twenty years later, the daring apiarist ventured into Tasmania's rugged and remote west.

Brothers Kenneth, Neal and Ewan Stephens have taken over their grandfather's legacy. ( Supplied: Ewan Stephens )

"In 1934 he bought a 1929 AA Model Ford truck," Mr Stephens said.

"They took it to Queenstown towing a trailer.

"They had 50 hives on the trailer and about 40 on the back of the vehicle," Mr Stephens said.

"It took them three days to drive over the rocks, it was only a horse track at the time.

"It was an amazing feat to even try and take a truck out there."

Mr Stephens' grandfather worked in the west for a season, but did not return until later in the 1950s.

"Leatherwood honey that was produced there was so strong in flavour that they couldn't sell it," Mr Stephens said.

"It wasn't until my parents came along and they went all over the world to sell it.

"It doesn't grow anywhere else in the world, it comes from the leatherwood tree, a very heavy rainfall forest tree."

After appearing on an ABC show in 1956, demand skyrocketed and the Stephens family borrowed money to build a packing plant and a new extractor at their property in Mole Creek.

Mr Stephens has recently taken over the business after the death of his father, but he has fond memories of the times spent with the family collecting honey.

Ian and Shirley Stephens travelled around the world trying to sell leatherwood honey. ( Supplied: Ewan Stephens )

"Beekeeping is hard work, but interesting. I started working when I was eight-years-old and spent time with my brothers collecting honey," he said.

"Kelly Basin in the west has an old railway track where Mum and Dad first found it in 1968 — we have really fantastic memories collecting honey there."

Mr Stephens said working in the honey industry had always been a struggle because of the weather.

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"You're lucky to get two or three good years out of 10," he said.

"It seems to be worse than that now, we haven't had a good year since 2010."

In 2019, many old leatherwood trees were also destroyed by bushfires in the state's south west.

Hives were wiped out along with large amounts of valuable leatherwood trees, that were expected to take years to recover.

R Stephens Honey is celebrating 100 years producing honey in Tasmania. ( ABC Rural: Eden Hynninen )

Diversifying into agritourism

It has been challenging for family-run Blue Hills Honey at Mawbanna, in north-west Tasmania too.

"Last year was tough, but we had some reserves luckily," owner Nicola Charles said.

"This year we hope we're going to have a better crop."

The business recently diversified into agritourism.

"Last year we built a cafe and interpretation centre," Ms Charles said.

"We also expanded our packing sheds and added in some offices.

"We used to have a farm container at the back where we would sell honey, and we always had people come by and want to know more about the apiary and the bees.

"We moved in last March and started up a virtual reality experience, to show people what we do in the bush without getting a few stings and taking a couple of days out of your time."

She wanted visitors to understand and experience the beauty of collecting honey in places like the Tarkine, the largest temperate rainforest in Australia.

Nicola, Robbie, Ella and Thomas Charles are part of a honey business in Tasmania that goes back to 1955. ( Supplied: Nicola Charles )

"Right now it's beautiful. In the heart of the Tarkine when the leatherwood is flowing, it's unlike any other honey you'll ever see in the world," Ms Charles said.

"You go in the bush and can smell that leatherwood smell. You actually get wet feet when on harvest as well because the nectar is overflowing. It can fill a box of 25 kilograms in two or three days."

Ms Charles said this season, because of the drier weather conditions, certain trees were flowering for the first time in 20 years.

"It looks really interesting because there's a lot of gums in flower along with a lot of peppermint and stringybark. It'll be great to see if nectar will flow from them," she said.

"Trees have their own life cycle. Some might have six- or seven-year cycles. The opportunity for trees to yield nectar in Tasmania is dependent on very dry harsh conditions, particularly with eucalypts."

Ms Charles hoped to produce about 100 tonnes of honey this year, where about 65 per cent — down from about 70 — will be exported around the world.

"We've decided to do more domestic marketing. It's more of a risk management strategy for us; we felt too heavily weighted in exports," she said.

"That's come to fruition with the coronavirus. We've been notified that no freight is going into China or Hong Kong, where we have an order that's going to sit here for a while.

"They've said it's going to take two or three weeks, but that will no doubt depend on what's happening in China."

Both the Charles and Stephens families are looking forward to a better season in 2020.

"In the past 50 years, I've had years with no honey. I look at it as nature looking after itself," Ms Charles said.

"We are hoping for a better year this year."