Training
Postgraduate students
The CRC for Honey Bee Products fully supported 13 PhD students and partially supported an additional 7 PhD students in research projects supporting the honey bee industry. A wide range of expertise was developed from metabolomics, machine learning, GIS, genomics, and modelling to name a few. Additionally, there were more than 14 Masters and Honours students that interacted with the CRC for Honey Bee Products. COVID lockdowns impinged on this training program but deliverables, as promised, will be completed.
Clara Elisa Castanos Sanchez de la Barquera PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Dan Dixon PHD CANDIDATEPhD Student (Geography)
Daniel Juarez Payes MASTERS STUDENTMasters student
Elias Colgan-Zito UNDERGRADUATE PROJECTNational student from Deakin University
Iris Sietsma UNDERGRADUATE PROJECTInternational student from Radboud University, Netherlands
Jess Bikaun (nee Moran) PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Kasun Panditharatne MASTERS STUDENTMasters Student
Katharina Schmidt PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Luca Dowell MASTERS STUDENTMasters Student
Mariana Mello dos Santos MASTERS STUDENTMaster by Research student
Merryln Martha Mpofu MASTERS STUDENTMasters Student
Moses van Bawi Chawn MASTERS STUDENTMasters Student
Shannon Holt PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Sharmin Sultana PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Sylvester A. Obeng-Darko PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Tate Hancox MASTERS & PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Vidushi Patel PHD CANDIDATEPhD candidate
Training workshops
CERT III Beekeeping Training
Beekeeping College of WA
In the first year, the CRCHBP supported BICWA and the Beekeeping College of WA to launch its Cert III training program in Western Australia at the Y-Hub. This initiative was supported by the State Government, with Minister Susan Ellery MLA offering Traineeships to the industry. This aligns the west with the east in training opportunities and lays the foundation for developing a career path for beekeepers.
To improve the training experience, with CRC support, the Beekeeping College of WA moved to Bees Neez to combine the commercial beekeeper’s hands-on experience with the theory of the CERT III. This course now runs annually at full capacity.
Yanchep Training Institute
The Yanchep Training Institute also successfully scoped the CERT III in beekeeping and their highlight was providing beekeeping training to a Participant of the CRC, Noongar Land Enterprise, for the production of their new Ngooka honey.
Honey Bee Hackathons
Over the period of the CRC for Honey Bee Products, three Honey Bee Hackathons were able to be held. The concept of these Hackathons was to test and develop a value-adding idea for the industry. The one to two and half day workshops worked on attracting like-minded start-up and marketing talent, a sharing of ideas with the best progressed towards a business pitch. A ‘Plan on a Page’ was provided to structure the thinking process, as well as pitch ideas. Voting selected the best idea to succeed.
eChallenge
In 2019 the CRC for Honey Bee Products together with the South Australian Apiarist Association sponsored the eChallenge hosted by the University of Adelaide. There were two honey bee-related projects: Beecognition and Sweet Soviet Craft Breweries. Beecognition won the Honey Bee Prize, the Agri-Food and Wine Prize and the overall eChallenge.
B-QUAL Australia training
A close relationship between the CRC and B-QUAL Australia was formed to introduce the traceability of honey bee products.
B-QUAL workshop
This workshop includes 7 short talks laying out the traceability and the honey authentication system that the CRC was working with B-QUAL Australia to build.
| Speaker | Presentation | |
|---|---|---|
| Wayne Fuller & Donald Muir | B-QUAL: Industry owned quality assurance system | Watch video |
| Bryan Boruff & Giles Knight | X marks the spot: the B-QUAL honey app | Watch video |
| Sharon Purchase & SquareCode | Digitisation of B-QUAL | Watch video |
| Liz Barbour | Quality Assurance for Australian Honey | Watch video |
| Connie Locher | Exploring HPTLC as analytical tool for BQUAL testing | Watch video |
| Kevin Vinsen | Developing honey testing using HPTLC and the statistical approach | Watch video |
| Sharon Purchase, Daniel Schepis, Mila Tarabashkina & Kim Feddema | Developing the Story for WA Honey | Watch video |
B-QUAL software demonstration
To help beekeeper businesses change to the new digitised system, this training video was captured.
Anti-counterfeiting workshop
When high-value honey bee products are exported, the risk of the packaging being reused or copied escalates. This workshop was offered to enable packers to think through their packaging and pick up tips on how to reduce their risk. This workshop has two sessions and is password controlled.
Password: Testimona2022
Australasian Honey bee 2021 Research Conference
The conference was to be run together with the Bee Industry Council of WA (BICWA). Whilst the in-person meeting was cancelled due to COVID, the research conference went online. This was the first time there had been a gathering of Honey Bee researchers in Australia, and the focus was on “better bees, better business”. Talks presented by CRC researchers are linked with the Projects they relate to.
Guest speakers included: Dr Cooper Scouten (SCU); Dr John Roberts (CSIRO); Ashley Zamek (HIA); Dr Madlen Kratze (NSW DPI); Elizabeth Frost (NSW DPI) Jody Gerdts (Bee Scientifics); Annelies Austin (SCU); Dr Trong Tran (USC); Daniela Scaccabarozzi (Chem Centre); Dr Yasvir Tesiram (Bruker); Francisco Encinas-Viso (CSIRO); Tristan Campbell (Chem Centre).
The conference was moderated by Dr Liz Barbour, Weilin Chi and Jurgen van Pletsen (PerthVideo.com.au)
Honey export workshops
Hosted in collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the Bee Industry Council of WA, three events were held:
- Breakfast on 29th November 2021 to share the preliminary findings from a review of the marketing messages from WA packers.
- Online presentation 25th February 2022 of the market survey of 6 countries on their consumer view of honey.
- Export dinner on 5th August 2022 to discuss the marketing research outcomes and plans post the CRC. Each country that had been surveyed was discussed to highlight future opportunities.