Construction of the facility for imported bees at the Mickleham Post Entry Quarantine Facility is now complete. After careful planning and research, officers from the Department of Agriculture are excited to be testing the new facility over the coming weeks. For the testing, post entry quarantine processes will be carried out using domestic bees. Once testing at the compound has been successfully completed, imported bees may be quarantined at the new facility from the end of 2015.
Tests in the bee facility will conclude with a process called ‘grafting’, which is used to raise queen bees. Queen bees hatch from eggs that are identical to those of worker bees. However, queen bee eggs hatch in a special type of cell containing ‘royal jelly’. It is the consumption of this jelly that causes larvae to develop into queen bees. Grafting ensures queen bees are produced by moving bee eggs or young larvae from the ordinary worker bee cells into plastic queen bee cells containing royal jelly. The resulting queen bee cells are the only material that importers are able to remove from the post entry quarantine facility.
The queen bees bred from imported parent bees can then be used to establish new colonies in Australia. The genetics of the queen, and the drone bees she mates with, determine the genetics of the whole bee colony. The quarantine processes allow beekeepers to increase genetic diversity of their bees to improve traits such as honey production and disease resistance, while minimising the risk of diseases entering the country.
The bee facility is the first of seven compounds to be constructed. The facility for plants is also close to completion.
For more information on why we import bees click here. Detailed information on the bee import process at the existing post entry quarantine facility can be found here, and more information on raising queen honey bees can be found here.