Owning bees

Honey bees play an essential role in biodiversity, not only producing honey and beeswax but also pollinating a vast number of flowering and food producing plants.

Beekeeping can be a fascinatingly, worthwhile and rewarding hobby for those living in urban areas. Australian regulations require that those keeping bees, follow good beekeeping practices to keep bees healthy and to minimise issues with swarming and disease.

All European honey beehives must be registered as a biosecurity entity with Biosecurity Queensland. Native beeves do not need to registered. Each registrable biosecurity entity is allocated a hive identification number (HIN).