Australian agriculture has already suffered greatly in the bushfire crisis, but the loss is expected to continue as estimates of damage to the bee population continue to rise.

Key points: More than 10,000 honey bee hives are estimated to have been destroyed across the Australian mainland, each containing over 45,000 bees

More than 10,000 honey bee hives are estimated to have been destroyed across the Australian mainland, each containing over 45,000 bees Researchers are looking at native stingless bees as an alternative to repopulate the hives

Researchers are looking at native stingless bees as an alternative to repopulate the hives Fundraiser Hive Aid was set up late last year in an attempt to help out Australia's 'littlest livestock'

Early assessment has indicated that more than 10,000 honey bee hives have been destroyed across the Australian mainland, each containing over 45,000 bees.

There have also been concerns about the unique Ligurian subspecies of honey bee, found on Kangaroo Island, as 800 hives and 115 nucleus hives have been lost.

Northern New South Wales-based beekeeper, Wayne Fuller, has lost more than 1,000 hives to the fires across the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands of the state.

His family-run apiary business, which has hives located within a 120-kilometre radius of Grafton, was one of Capilano Honey's biggest suppliers.

"We lost 476 hives and we've now lost I another 800 that have died from heat stress," Mr Fuller said.

Millions of dollars have been lost as beehives were destroyed in bushfires. ( Supplied: Wayne Fuller )

That was a third of their total number of hives, which he said would result in a 90 per cent reduction of their honey production.

"We would [normally] produce somewhere in the vicinity of 250 and 300 tonnes of honey," Mr Fuller said.

"We would probably be closer if we have 20 [tonnes], maybe 30 [tonnes].

"We have a little bit left to the season, but we're being really kind to the bees as well, like we're not pushing them too hard, because they have endured a lot."

Mr Fuller estimated the financial loss from the fires on the business would run into the millions of dollars.

"It will definitely change our practices because there are areas burnt that I will probably never see recovery in my lifetime," he said.

"We'll probably look at a major business change … where, for the business to survive, we'll probably swing more bees over to the pollination side of things."

Other creatures to the rescue

An evolutionary biologist from Western Sydney University, James Cook, has been researching which insects could help the European honey bee pollinate horticultural crops in Australia.

"We can complement the activities of honey bees by also harnessing the efforts of native insects," he said.

"Native stingless bees, sometimes called the 'sugarbag', can also be kept in hives and you can get thousands in one box, so in many ways they are like a honey bee.

"But they're smaller and, in some respects, easier to manage."

Researchers experiment with pollinating strawberries in a glasshouse. ( Supplied: Western Sydney University Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment )

Professor Cook said stingless bees were being utilised in both glasshouses and out in the field.

"We're running trials seeing how well stingless bees can pollinate strawberry crops grown hydroponically and getting really nice results," he said.

"Macadamia farmers already pay to have hives put onto their orchards when the macadamia are flowering."

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Researchers have also been working to diversify landscapes to encourage other native insects to aid pollination efforts, such as wasps and beetles.

"Most of our horticultural crops, most fruits, are going to require an insect, sometimes a bird or bat, to visit a flower and fertilise a female plant," Professor Cook said.

"Generally, hairy insects which visit flowers a lot will tend to trap pollen on their bodies and transfer it to other plants.

"We want to find a lot of these other insects that are native, that we're maybe not appreciating so much, and have more potential to supplement the fantastic work of honey bees."

Flies a pollinator, not a pest

Professor Cook said scientific studies from all over the world have found it is beneficial to have multiple insect species pollinating crops, and could act as a natural buffer to diseases.



"A range of insects contribute, sometimes the honey bee is dominant, but in other cases it might be another kind of insect; a moth or a fly," he said.

"They can sometimes work together to get better fruit quality and yield if you have visits from a few different types of insect.

"Flies are the kind of insect that people don't appreciate very much, obviously no one is very keen on bush flies or house flies, but flies are good pollinators."

Native stingless bees can also be housed in hives, like honey bees. ( Supplied: Western Sydney University Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment )

Researchers and producers have been using the more solitary nature of flies to their advantage, Professor Cook said.

"They have different characteristics to bees; they don't live in colonies or hives so the only way of exploiting them is to make the landscape good to live in," he said.

"You don't try and keep the flies going in a hive, you just apply them and let them do they're thing.

"Some of our collaborators are already using flies to generate good pollination for producing carrots and onion seed for example."

Investing in recovery

Rural Aid's national business development manager, Wayne Thomson, said about 130 beekeepers around the country had already signed up for Hive Aid, which launched in early December 2019.

Hive Aid was a partnership between Rural Aid and Australia's largest bee producer, Capilano Honey, and was overseen by the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council.

"At every opportunity, we try and get the word out there to get more of them to register with us so that we can get keep that support getting out the door to them as quickly as possible," Mr Thomson said.

He said the donated money had already started flowing to affected beekeepers, to help them care for what he called Australia's "littlest livestock".

"So there's two different things that we give them at the moment; there's $1,500 to help pay the bills, and that goes directly to pay the rates [or] maybe pay some pollen or some sugar," Mr Thomson said.

"Then we have the $500 gift card that they can spend on groceries or fuel or whatever they need. So immediately there's that $2,000 that they can access.

"We're working with the association to see what else we can do to compensate.

"Whether we provide additional funds or access to sugar or some protein for the bees, we're just nutting that out now."

Rural Aid has also been investigating the possibility of using its resources to build much-needed habitat for bee populations.

"There was something in the United States where they were planting flowering trees to help the bee population, and we thought, 'Well, we have a farm army as one of our programs and can we be out there planting flowering trees'," Mr Thomson said.

"So we're talking to people that know much more about that than we do, and say, 'Can we provide the manpower, or maybe some funds, to help get these bee populations back on a healthier situation with some flowers to at least pollinate?'.