Honey production
Tocal is home to 50 honey bee hives, 2 stingless bee hives, a diversity of solitary native bees and the Bee Research and Training Facility.
Production system
The Tocal Bee Enterprise will restart in the 2025-2026 season. Currently 40 hives are on site for queen breeding research and extension, nutrition and miticide trials, and ten hives are used for training in the Certificate III in Beekeeping.
Property resources for honey production
The property has either existing and potential value as a floral resource depending on flowering crops sown (e.g. canola, pasture legumes such as clover species). Additionally, 249ha of timbered country set aside for environmental value will grow into high value nectar production if allowed to mature. Hectares utilised by the horse breeding and dairy programs will only be passively utilised by the enterprise foraging activities when flowering pasture plants or remnant timber species are producing nectar.
Floral resource areas
The usable area for honey production includes a mix of timbered grazing country including:
- 609ha of heavily timbered country
- Canola, clover, lucerne and other pasture legumes.
The primary floral resources on the Tocal property of importance to the Bee Enterprise are:
- Corymbia maculata (spotted gum)
- Angophora floribunda (rough-barked apple)
- Eucalyptus tereticornis (forest red gum)
- Eucalyptus paniculata (coastal grey ironbark)
- Eucalyptus moluccana (grey box)
- Eucalyptus punctata (grey gum)
- Eucalyptus saligna (Sydney blue gum)
- Eucalyptus blakelyi (Blakely's red gum)
- Eucalyptus amplifolia (Cabbage gum)
- Melaleuca styphelioides (prickly-leaved paperbark).
Marginal floral resources include:
- white clover
- lucerne
- Grevillea robusta (silk oak)
- Corymbia torelliana (cadaghi)
- Eucalyptus sideroxylon (mugga or ironbark).
Stocking rate
There is no stipulated stocking rate for honey bee hives legislated in NSW. The greatest number of hives to reside across the Tocal property at any given time will be 350 with apiary sites of up to 30 production hives. Stocking rate per apiary site (collection of bee hives in one location) varies depending on hive type (e.g. production versus nucleus hive for queen mating).
Rainfall
950mm on average. Seasonal variability is significant for example 2016 was a very tough winter with below-average rain and no decent run off rain to fill dams in 12 months. In seasons with below average rainfall, nectar and pollen production will suffer and supplemental feeding in conjunction with strategic hive migration to offsite apiary sites will be necessary.
Production system
The future Tocal Bee Enterprise will be a sideline-scale mixed honey and pollination production system of 200 hives. Additional small scale queen breeding support and nucleus hives for mating will be established over time as the enterprise grows.
Market
The major market focus is wholesale honey production for sale to a commercial honey packer, provision of contract pollination services to almond growers, and breeder queen sale to beekeeping businesses nationally. Income is primarily received from these three activities and will be used toward Tocal bee enterprise operating costs. Income is also received from production of beeswax which, at initial small quantities will be traded for beekeeping equipment from a beekeeping supply store to contribute to annual comb replacement.
Environment
The beekeeping industry has a clear objective of preserving native flora. It depends on the preservation of native flora and hence has much in common with those who support nature conservation and the establishment of conservation reserves. The bee enterprise provides a justification to maintain and regenerate native timbers on the Tocal site, as in the proposed Voluntary Conservation Area in Ridge paddock, yielding farm product outcomes (i.e. - breeder queens and honey).
Continued access to floral resources faces an extensive number of threats, namely:
- climate change, which is affecting the flowering patterns of key flora
- land clearing for agriculture
- forestry activities that remove flowering trees
- replacement of felled trees with pine and low-pollen- and nectar-yielding eucalypt plantations
- fires, including hazard reduction and natural bushfires
- reduced and unseasonal flooding of river red gum forests
- reduction of vehicle access to good-quality sites
- firewood harvesting
- salinity, which harms the health of the available flora
- droughts, which reduce flowering and interrupt growth cycles
- dieback of eucalypt species
- agricultural practices that reduce the abundance of flowering weed species
- pesticide use on flowering crops that are attractive to foraging honeybees
- newer varieties of agricultural crops that are not as beneficial to honeybees
- urban sprawl and rural subdivisions, which remove mature vegetation and reduce the number of apiary sites; this also adds public safety concerns.