RECENT rain may not have been welcomed by the region's sportspeople, but the shire's apiarists (beekeepers), like Moruya’s Terry Bettini, were delighted.
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Mr Bettini said the rain would help kick-start pollen growth, which bees need to make honey.
“This lot of rain will help tremendously,” Mr Bettini said.
“We won’t notice the difference for about a month, but this will help a lot."
The 2014 drought had a terrible effect on honey production across eastern Australia.
“I’ve never seen like that before; everyone so short of honey,” Mr Bettini said.
“We have been short of pollen since the end of February. In January and February, honey was selling for $3.20 a kilo, by June it was $4.50 and it is $6 now.
"This time I’ve got half the number of bees in the boxes I usually do in winter."
Mr Bettini said some beekeepers were even moving their bees onto canola, however the honey it produces, while good, candied very quickly.
He said the summer of 2013-14 was so hot and dry you could “see hives melting".
“It was happening right across the areas affected by the drought,” he said.