Worth ordering in Australia now?

Hi,

I have an existing flow hive. I was originally planning to order a second around now to be ready to take a split in early spring. With the Varroa situation, and the fact that we could have the hive and equipment destroyed without sufficient compensation to replace - what are you recommending currently? Do we just wait and see what happens? If I ordered and built the hive, but didn’t deploy it - could it still be destroyed?

Thanks,

Paul

Hi Paul. My guess would be that any equipment that doesn’t contain bees should be safe. Especially if it has never contained bees in the past.

Hey Paul,
Unused equipment won’t be subject to destruction. If you’re in the red zone you have 48 hours to harvest honey, remove, seal and store the super from the time DPI notify you of the imminent destruction of your hive. So you save the most expensive part of the Flow hive. Only the brood nest will be destroyed. You can choose to have them destroy the bees and hive and be compensated $550 or just the bees and be compensated $250. If you keep the equipment, you’ll have to clean and irradiate it. . Personally, I’d let them destroy the hive and take the $550. You won’t be allowed to have bees for three years.
If you’re outside the red zone, you can take measures to prevent swarming, but at this stage that does not include splitting. Stay tuned though, that could change. Registered beekeepers can now catch and box swarms and move once to an apiary.