Bees Kneez Apiaries: Beechina emergency-level bushfire destroyed 50 hives, kills about three million bees

A WA beekeeper says around three million bees across 50 hives — and more than a tonne of honey — have been incinerated in an emergency-level bushfire in Perth’s north east. Dave Leyland from Bees Kneez Apiaries said he first noticed a large smoke plume at his Beechina property, about 50km east of the CBD, before flames destroyed half a bee yard housing around 100 hives on Wednesday afternoon. “The load of bees is only about 900m from our house, so I was in the shed just doing a little bit of work, and I walked out and saw a whole heap of smoke,” he told The West Australian. “Initially I wasn’t too worried, because more often than not the firefighters get onto it and put it out, but there was a fairly strong wind. “I realised it was going to go past the house, but then I figured that the bees were going to go and then I saw a big, huge cloud of black smoke. “That’s when I realised they were gone.” Mr Leyland said there was between 60,000 and 80,000 bees in each of the 50 to 60 hives he estimates were destroyed — taking the toll to at least three million insects. DFES District Officer Shaun Champ said the bushfire was accidentally ignited by machinery about 2.15pm on Wednesday. As of 8.30pm on Wednesday it had razed 70 hectares of bushland. A derelict house was also damaged in the fire and at least one shed was destroyed Mr Leyland said the destruction would impact the wider industry as he housed “high-value bees” used for a breeding program on Rottnest Island. “I went for a walk once it died down a bit and and took a photo. At least half the load would be gone, I’d say, so probably about 50 or 60 hives.” “There would have been probably a tonne and a half of honey on there . . . and we were going to harvest it next week. “We run 1200 hives, but it’s a fairly big hit. It’ll take a lot to rebuild. First off, we’ll have to go in and assess how bad it all is, and then and sort out the mess. “It’s a pain in the bum because I’ve actually just sold the business, so we’ll have to work out what’s going on, whether I rebuild the load or what goes.” Mr Leyland said his financial losses were in the tens of thousands, with at least $7000 of honey incinerated. “It’s about $700 a hive to replace all the equipment, it had our breeding stock from last year in there and we’re part of the Rottnest breeding program — we have some fairly high value bees that we breed from and supply the industry with — so that will have a bit of an impact as well. “If we really rebuild from scratch, it will take well over a year for them to to get back up to the same sort of strength. “We’ve been through plenty of fires around us, across 43 summers, and that’s the first load of bees I’ve lost.” Mr Leyland said he was insured for any loss to the material of the beehive, but not for a loss of production. “We’re not insured for the stock and there’s some very high value bees in there and nothing can replace that.” “The remaining bees will likely just go out in the morning and think, oh, my god, what happened? and just sort themselves out. “We’ll just have to go through and see what’s recoverable and then deal with the charcoal I suppose. “ The fire, located in the Shire of Mundaring, closed major routes in the area including Great Eastern Highway in both directions.