Did You Know? Purple Hive Project Vignesh Murugan (left) and Joel Kuperholz, co-developers of the Purple Hive. With off-the-shelf parts, artificial intelligence and a little ingenuity, two engineers have devised a purple box that could save the agricultural industry millions. As young researchers with a start-up company, Vimana Tech, Mechatronics Engineer Joel Kuperholz and Astrophysicist Vignesh Murugan knew they wanted their engineering to help people. “Along the journey we were trying to better understand: what are the key, key challenges in agriculture?” One of those crucial challenges was Varroa destructor: a tiny mite that strikes fear into the heart of beekeepers. Varroa has decimated hives around the world but was yet to become established in Australia [it is now]. Kuperholz and Murugan started building prototype systems to detect Varroa and were soon introduced to the food company Bega. Working together on what would become the Purple Hive Project. It's purple because the colour is kind to a bee's sense of sight, and looks like a letterbox attached to the front of a hive. The entry slot contains sophisticated surveillance equipment. The purple hives are equipped with high-definition cameras and AI technology to scan bees for the deadly parasite, Varroa Mite, and are solar-powered Purple Hive Project https://youtu.be/KcPBLImSX60?si=sBSUjtXduku9Rk35 How the Purple Hive works Purple Hive is a solar-powered artificial intelligence device trained to detect Varroa. Every time a bee flies into a Purple Hive, it’s directed through a series of small glass slides. “It’s like this little tunnel that allows you to actually look into [the hive] and monitor each bee,” Murugan said. Two cameras — one above and one below — capture each bee from 360 degrees. "It's got two cameras, one top, one bottom," explained co-developer Vignesh Murugan of the Melbourne-based Virmana Tech company. "As a bee comes through the front slit we monitor the bees, take an image every second and detect whether varroa mite is there." Individual images of thousands of bees per hive are taken over the course of a day. That's where artificial intelligence comes into play. "So what's happening here is we've trained AI to count bees and detect hitchhiking varroa mites." The AI observes each individual bee, checks for any hitchhiking mites, and triggers a biosecurity alert if Varroa is detected. If the mite is detected, an alarm signal can be sent instantly to a device such as a mobile phone. At present [2020], quarantine inspectors conduct regular physical inspections of so-called 'sentinel beehives' placed at ports and other points of entry to Australia to detect if the mite has arrived. "If technology alerts you on your phone, you instantly know there's a problem. You can go out and do something about it," said Aris Petratos. Before the Purple Hive In Australia, beekeepers regularly check their hives for Varroa with painstaking manual detection methods. The most common is the “sugar shake” test, which sees beekeepers dust their bees in icing sugar. The fine granules stick to the mites’ feet, causing them to lose their grip on the bees and fall into the white sugar where they are more easily seen. “Bringing this type of technology to agriculture and the beekeeping industry … it’s been fantastic.” (Source: Create Digital; ) A team which has worked on the Mars Rover project have designed a beehive using tiny cameras and artificial intelligence to detect and prevent hitch-hiking varroa mites from entering our ports. Purple Hives use cameras to photograph bees entering or leaving hives, and AI to identify varroa mites. (Source: Landline 25 July 2020) Or at ABC News To see the Biology and how Varroa mites kill bees go to these Educational Videos (21) from  Ecrokek in NZ.

What is a Bee Broker?

Many farmers, recognizing the important role that bees play in pollination, rent beehives to ensure the best pollination of their fruit and other crops. Their crops are too valuable to be dependent on wild pollinators alone. Growers look at the number of flowers they have in their fields or orchards in order to determine how many hives they need for optimum pollination.

Beekeepers who rent out their bee colonies for pollination may move their hives several times to accommodate the different flowering times of various crops. They may even move hives across States.

A Bee Broker organises the hives from the Beekeepers to be delivered to the Growers that need the bees for a fee.

"Honey bees represent by far the most commercialized provider of pollination services, with farmers across the world paying beekeepers to ferry their hives into fields of apples and almonds so that the bees flit from flower to flower, transferring pollen and allowing the fruit and nuts to develop."  (The Conversation)

(Source: ABC News 27 October 2019 & Landline)

"There are only a handful of bee brokers in Australia. Each year, they coordinate millions of bees and hundreds of beekeepers across States to pollinate Australia's booming almond orchards in northern Victoria.


When the bee trucks hit the highways just before spring with more than 1.5 billion bees on board, it's the biggest movement of livestock in Australian history.

And yes, the Australian Tax Office classifies bees as livestock.


"I have had people describe my job as like trying to round up cats on a horse," joked Trevor Monson, now in his fortieth year of bee broking.

Each winter, Mr Monson books in beekeepers and ensures they deliver fit, healthy bees on time and ready to work the flowers.

"We get contracts from the almond company and then we source bees to fill that contract," he said.
"We plan on where the bees are going, we design the hive drops, and we audit 10 per cent of the bees so we're satisfied they're worth being paid.
"We do all the financing and send out the cheques, and then send the bees home again."

This season, Mr Monson contracted 200 beekeepers to deliver 110,000 hives.

This year, Mr Monson's northernmost bees came from Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
(Source: ABC News 27 October 2019 & Landline)

Key points Bee brokers transport European honey bees across the country to pollinate crops Beekeepers are increasingly turning to pollination services, rather than honey production More bees are needed to keep up with growing demand The Conversation 23 May 2018 To optimise yields, most growers [Almonds, blueberries, apples, melons] rent European honeybee hives during crop flowering season. Honeybees were first introduced to Australia from Europe in the early 1800s. Today, the beekeeping industry includes around 600,000 managed hives and is worth around A$100 million to Australia’s economy. Managed crop pollination services have become big business in many parts of the world, including Australia. Although most beekeepers do still keep bee hives to produce honey or wax products, paid pollination services are becoming increasingly important to the industry. In Australia, the almond industry is one of the biggest renters of honeybee hives for pollination. Almonds bloom for a few weeks at the end of August and rely almost completely on insect pollination to produce harvestable almond fruits. The many plantations across northwestern Victoria rent more than 150,000 hives each year, costing millions of dollars in rental fees. Costs per hive vary depending on the crop, covering costs to the beekeeper such as how far they have to travel, the time of year (early season pollination can be more stressful for honey bees and require more feeding costs for beekeepers to maintain hive health), and the risks (e.g. chemicals) bees might face in the crop. For almond pollination, one hive can cost around $70-100 to rent.

Trevor Monson and his team inspecting hives for almond pollination
(Source: Nadine Chapman, USyd)

ABC Landline
Bee Future: Precious honey bees in short supply 5 April 2020

Pollination agreements

Hiring hives is the most common solution for obtaining managed hives needed for pollination. Hives are usually hired directly from beekeepers or from brokers working for beekeepers or growers. This approach has the advantage that the growers can specify exactly what they require.

It may take a beekeeper a long amount of time to prepare colonies suitable for pollination, especially if the pollination period is in early spring, or during a period when there is commonly a honey flow. In many cases, the preparation work by beekeepers to get their hives ready for effective pollination can take many months. Therefore, is it is critical that growers order hives from beekeepers/beebrokers early enough to ensure adequate supply.

When hiring honey bee colonies, many beekeepers/beebrokers and growers find it preferable to use a written pollination agreement that clearly specifies the responsibilities of both parties. Agreements, or contracts, are useful as there is no confusion over what the grower thinks they are hiring and what the beekeeper/beebroker thinks they need to supply. They become very important if there are any problems with what is supplied or what happens to the hives once they are in the crop.

Although pollination agreements can vary, some of the key aspects of a pollination agreement should specify:

• names and addresses of the parties concerned and the date of the agreement
• location of the crop
• number of colonies hired
• timing of delivery of the hives
• strength of the colonies hired (number of frames of brood and bees)
• distribution of hives throughout the crop
• length of notice required before shifting hives in and out of the crop
• rental fees and terms of payment
• an arbitrator in the event of a dispute
• permission and protocol for an independent audit of hive quality if required
• action to be taken if an audit is failed
• protection of hives from pesticide damage while in the crop
• witness to the agreement.

Written pollination agreements protect all parties and eliminate misunderstandings between beekeepers and growers. Establishing a pollination contract is also considered best practice. Both beekeepers and growers will benefit from the adoption of best practice pollination services.

When establishing a pollination agreement you should always seek legal advice.

Did You Know? Bees can be used to detect landmines. Tiny radio plates the size of a rice grain will be attached to honey bees to detect antipersonnel landmines, of which there are about 100 million in 70 war-torn countries. The tiny radio plates are engraved with serial numbers to keep track of the bees, which are being conditioned to develop a preference in addition to nectar, in this case TNT, or any other material that releases metamphenamine. Special spectrometers that can “smell” TNT are placed in movable beehives to indicate landmines in specific areas. Bees that “smell” of explosives can then be tracked to the landmine. The bees won’t detonate the landmines. (Source: The Remarkable Busy Bee) The Gut Microbiome.... of Bees Ockham's Razor Sunday 3 October 2021

A Queen Bee Producer is an apiarist focused on breeding and raising queen bees for sale and for use in their own colonies. Their duties include selecting breeding stock, grafting larvae, managing queen-raising colonies, grafting larvae, and transferring mature queen cells to mating colonies for drones to mate with the queens. They also conduct daily hive inspections, ensure adequate nutrition and pest control, organize sales, and manage business aspects like record-keeping and finances.

Beekeepers can change the strain (or type) of bee in a colony, by removing the queen and replacing her with a queen of the desired strain. This procedure is known as requeening a colony. Requeening is also used to replace queens that are old or have reduced egg laying capacity.

Michael Kiem with the artificial queen cells (and Queens inside) ready for posting
(Source: ABC News)

Laying queens may be bought from a queen breeder, or they may be reared by a beekeeper who has a good understanding of bee behaviour, bee handling and beekeeping.

Queens are raised from the same fertilised female eggs as workers bees. A newly hatched female larva is neither queen or worker caste. There are small differences in the composition of royal jelly fed to larvae destined to be a queen or a worker. The variation in diet starts from the time of larvae hatching. On the third day after hatching, a major difference in diet occurs when pollen is included in the diet of female larvae destined to become a worker.

Showing the Queen Bee
(Source: Swarm Commander)

It is important to use larvae under the age of 24 hours when rearing queens. Larvae of this age will have had minimal exposure to a worker diet.

Queens are raised by honey bee colonies in specially built queen cells. These are near vertical, peanut-shaped beeswax cells with an opening that faces downwards. Queen cells may be found on the edges and surface of the comb. They are only built when required and are not always present in the hive.
    
The base of the queen cell is known as the 'cell cup'. During natural queen raising, the queen may lay an egg in the cup before the walls of the cell are fully built by the worker bees. (The laying of eggs in cell cups does not apply when bees raise queens under the emergency impulse.)

A strong queen bee (pictured with longer abdomen) is crucial for a healthy hive. (Source: ABC News)
Michael Kiem will deliver up to 50,000 queen bees through the post this year to strengthen hives for crucial crop pollination and honey production.
Each queens sells for between $26 to $38, depending on the size of the order.
How much money will he make this year? Is this a good business?

The following natural impulses stimulate the building of queen cells and raising of queens.

• Queenlessness (emergency): When a colony loses its queen, an emergency exists. The bees raise new queens as quickly as possible. Worker cells (sometimes many) containing larvae are modified to become queen cells. These larvae may be fed worker royal jelly for some time, so the queen raised may have a reduced egg laying capacity.

• Swarming (reproduction) and supersedure (replacement): When swarming is to begin, eggs are laid in queen cell cups built by the bees on the surface or edge of the comb. The situation is similar in the case of supersedure where the colony raises only a small number of queens to replace an old or deteriorating queen.
  
  Queens raised under these 2 natural impulses are usually well developed with good egg laying potential. As the larvae are destined to become queens, they are fed the appropriate diet for queen larvae from the time of hatching. In addition, because a queen is present in the colony, they are raised in an unhurried manner.
  
  The supersedure impulse can be triggered within the hive by the beekeeper to raise large numbers of quality queens in a well controlled manner.
  
  Local copy of Raising Queen Honey Bees (13 pages) -
  
  from Agriculture Victoria
  https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/livestock-and-animals/honey-bees/handling-and-management/raising-queen-honey-bees
  
  Local copy of ABC News - Queen Bee Breeder doing big business

ANZSCO ID: 121311 [Apiarist]

Alternative names: Queen Bee Producer, Queen Bee Rearer,

Specialisations: IVF and Queen Bee Raising,
   
Knowledge, skills and attributes

• Knowledge of the requirements of raising successful queens

• Knowledge of detailed subjects of genetics and the selection of suitable drone and queen mothers

• Knowledge of starter colonies

• Skill of building required frame(s)

• Knowledge and application of grafting

• Knowledge of mating procedure

• Ability to record accurately of cells and queens

• Ability to pack bars of cells for transporting

Hayden Kiem with the artificial queen cells.
(Source: ABC News)

Duties and Tasks

• Queen Breeding & Rearing:
  • Stock Selection: Choosing and breeding quality genetic lines for a healthy and productive queen population.
      
• Grafting: Transferring honey bee larvae to queen cells for development into new queens.
     
• Colony Management: Establishing and managing specialized colonies for raising queens and for mating new queens with drones.
     
• Apiary Management:
  • Hive Inspections: Regularly checking colonies for health, strength, and productivity.
  • Health & Nutrition: Monitoring and maintaining the colony's health and ensuring adequate nutritional levels for the bees.
  • Pest & Disease Control: Implementing measures to control common hive pests and diseases.
       
• Business & Operations:
  • Sales & Logistics: Organizing the sale, purchase, and transportation of queen bees and other bee products.
       
• Record Keeping: Maintaining detailed records of hive activities, breeding programs, and market trends.
    
• Financial Management: Managing business capital, budgeting, and handling taxation and loans.
     
• Broader Beekeeping Tasks (Often Overlapping)
  • Honey Production: While the primary focus is queens, they may also raise bees for honey and other hive products.
  • Pollination: Some Queen Bee Producers also provide pollination services to fruit, nut, and vegetable crops
    

Worker, drone and queen development and key post-emergence timings
(Source: The Apiarist)

Large image of this chart

Working conditions

"We do 1,500 boxes of Queens a week from September to the end of April, shut down for a few months and start up again in August," Michael Kiem said.

This means that Queen Bee Breeders work long hours for 9 months of the year, then have a quieter time for 3 months during winter. They still have to look after the hives and do maintenance.

Tools and technologies

Queen Bee Breeders use specific tools like grafting tools for transferring larvae, queen cell cups and holders, queen mating nucleus boxes, queen marking pens and tubes, and incubators to control the environment for queen cells. Standard beekeeping equipment such as bee suits, smokers, hive tools, and protective clothing are also essential for handling bees and managing hives during the breeding process.

Education and training/entrance requirements

To become a queen bee breeder, the main requirement is extensive practical beekeeping experience, ideally two seasons or more, and the ability to manage a significant number of hives. Formal education includes VET courses at TAFE such as the Australian Queen Bee Breeding Skill Set (AHCSS00078), which provide the necessary knowledge and practical skills, though some courses may require you to have completed Year 12 or equivalent. There are no universally mandated entry requirements beyond practical beekeeping experience and the desire to learn.

Get Formal Training

Queen Bee Breeding Skill Set (AHCSS00078):
This is a formal set of units of competency designed for experienced beekeepers to expand their skills into specialist queen bee breeding.

Unfortunately, no training providers are offering this course [August 2025]

Rear Queen Bees (AHCBEK407):
This unit provides the knowledge and skills for high-quality queen bee production.

Students artificially inseminating bees
(Source: Tocal NSW)

Artificial Insemination (AI): For advanced breeding techniques, consider courses like the AHCBEK402 - Perform Queen Bee Artificial Insemination

For experienced bee breeders and researchers, this two-day course will help raise your skill level both in collecting semen and artificially inseminating queen bees.

AHCBEK409 Rear queen bees: For the experienced beekeeper interested in expanding into queen bee breeding, this two-day course at Tocal is run by industry-respected specialists. It covers both an understanding of queen bees and how to breed them. 2 Days - only at Paterson campus


Australian Queen Bee Breeders Association (AQBBA): Joining this organization can help raise breeding standards and provide a network of experienced breeders.

Employment Opportunities
 
The increasing local demand for queen bees and packaged bees may provide some additional positions.

Did You Know? Queen Bee Breeder - Louie Kelbert The Warilla man’s passion for bees arose from his first sting at the age of eight when he was throwing rocks at a swarm, and the bees turned and attacked. For his ninth birthday his parents presented him with his first hive, which he still uses today. “See they thought I was a strange kid because I never played with toys … always had the interest for beehives and bees,” Mr Kelbert said. “I saw photographs in books and TV documentaries and I thought, ‘wow, I would love to do that’.” He now keeps 3.5 million bees in 46 hives in a field … neighbouring the Illawarra Golf Range and a reserve that is rich with flowering bee-friendly plants, such as tea tree, swamp mahogany, banksia and bitou bush. Every morning he arrives to inspect the hives and spends the day in the field with his swarms of Caucasian, Carniolan and Italian bees, all sub-species of the Western honey bee.

  
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 The Conversation 24 April 2024

 

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Materials sourced from
Rural Careers; 
WebArchive Only - CareerHQ [Beekeeper];
WebArchive Only - CareersOnline [Beekeeper;];
Bee Broker ABC News 27 October 2019 & Landline
ABC News [Qeen Bee Breeder; ]
Monsons Honey
BeeAware
Techno-Science Canada
Honey Bee [Eyes in the Apiary;]
Agriculture Victoria [Raising Queen Honey Bees; ]
Swarm Commander [Breeder Queen; ]
Beewise [Queen Bees; ]
 Your Career [Beekeeper; ]

 

 

 

 

 

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