Where Have All the Bees Gone?
A beekeeper’s perspective from Bello Honey
If you’ve walked through a garden in New South Wales recently and noticed fewer bees humming among the flowers, you’re not imagining it. Across the state and particularly along the Mid North Coast honey bee numbers are under pressure. As local beekeepers here in Bellingen, we’re seeing firsthand the challenges bees are facing, and what this means for our community, environment, and future food security.
Why Are Bee Numbers Declining in NSW?
1. Climate Change and Weather Extremes
Our recent years have been marked by fires, floods, and ongoing unpredictable seasonal shifts. Bees are incredibly sensitive to climate patterns.
Long wet periods wash nectar from blossoms.
Extended heatwaves dry flowers out.
Early or late season changes mean plants bloom at the wrong times.
For bees, less nectar and pollen means less food and weaker colonies.
2. Habitat Loss
Native forests, wetlands, and flowering understory plants are disappearing as land is cleared and landscapes are altered. Bees rely on diversity. When landscapes become simplified, bees lose the steady year-round food they need to stay healthy.
3. Pesticides and Chemicals
Herbicides and insecticides in gardens, farms, and road verges can:
Contaminate nectar and pollen,
Reduce plant diversity,
Directly harm bees and their ability to navigate.
A healthy bee needs more than just flowers, it needs clean flowers.
4. Disease Pressures and Biosecurity Restrictions
With the arrival of the varroa mite in NSW, beekeeping has changed forever. Many hives were destroyed during containment efforts. Now, ongoing monitoring and management is necessary. It’s stressful for beekeepers, and the bees feel it too.
What Does This Mean for the Future?
Bees are more than honey-makers. They’re vital pollinators for hundreds of foods we rely on daily such as apples, avacados, maccas, almonds and pumpkins. Without bees, these foods become more expensive, harder to grow, or disappear altogether.
The decline of bees is a warning sign and when bees struggle, ecosystems struggle. And when ecosystems struggle, communities eventually feel it too.
Why Supporting Local Beekeepers Matters
Local beekeepers are the frontline caretakers of healthy pollinator populations. When you support a beekeeper, you support:
✔ Local Food Systems – Our hives pollinate farms, orchards and backyard veggie gardens across the region.
✔ Biodiversity – We place hives where they help restore plant life and encourage native flowering species.
✔ Sustainable Land Practices – Small-scale beekeepers are stewards of land health, not extractors from it.
✔ Quality You Can Trust – Local raw honey retains its natural enzymes, pollen and flavour — nothing added, nothing taken away.
What You Can Do to Help
Plant bee-friendly flowers like rosemary, grevillea, bottlebrush, lavender, basil and lemon myrtle.
Avoid chemical sprays.
Choose honey that is raw, local, and sustainably produced.
Buy from your local small-scale beekeepers.
Here at Bello Honey, we’re committed to caring for our bees, Gumbaynggirr land, and the future of our local food systems. Every jar of our honey tells the story of the flowers of Bellingen Shire, including tea tree, melaleuca, eucalypt, paperbark and riverbank and garden wildflowers.
When you support local beekeeping, you support balance, biodiversity, and a thriving, living landscape.
Thanks for being part of our hive. 🐝
— Bello Honey