Why 'The Bee Drover' is doubling down as other beekeepers quit

With her swag rolled out and her campfire lit, Sophia Croker is in her happy place.She's in the middle of nowhere, but right beside the thing that matters most: her bees."Nothing about my lifestyle is normal," she says."Who else gets to say they sleep in their swag under the stars every night and they don't know where their next destination is going to be?"Sophia loves her nomadic life as a commercial beekeeper, trucking hundreds of hives around rural New South Wales and Victoria chasing honey flows and pollinating crops.But behind the passion and devotion is a hidden struggle that's forcing Australia's beekeepers to call it quits."I'd be lying if I said I haven't sat and gone, 'Is this worth it?'"A deadly bee parasite, competition with imported honey, and rising fuel costs are devastating the industry."The price we get for our honey doesn't cover the cost of production at the moment."But as many businesses leave the industry, this 23-year-old is doubling down.She's determined not only to stay but to make sure more people know the truth behind the honey in their kitchen cupboards.Becoming 'The Bee Drover'Even though beekeeping has been in her family for over a century, Sophia didn't dream of following in their footsteps.But her life changed dramatically when she was an 18-year-old university student, and the offer came up to buy 120 hives from a beekeeper leaving the industry.It was a $40,000 investment."All of a sudden I was starting a company and at the bank taking out my first ever loan."And so began the fourth generation of beekeepers in the family, which started with Sophia's great-grandmother carting hives through the citrus orchards of Beelbangera on her push bike in the 1920s.In five years, Sophia has doubled her hives and also helps manage her dad's, meaning they're moving up to 2,000 hives at a time.They're constantly on the move, either chasing honey flows, finding areas where plants are in bloom and producing nectar, or being contracted on farms to pollinate crops."We get to see so much land that people will ever see in their lifetimes; it's so special."Sophia now documents her work and lifestyle on social media as "The Bee Drover", where she also hopes to bring greater awareness to the challenges facing the industry.The buzzkill The deadly varroa mite parasite is devastating beekeeping businesses, prompting warnings of a potential food crisis, as at least 60 per cent of hives are wiped out.The pest arrived in Australia in 2022 and has drastically changed beekeeping practices and costs."I knew the moment I found my first mite, it was going to change the way I bee keep forever."And it has."Every beekeeping technique, just throw it out the window."Because of the intensive treatments required to manage varroa mite, Sophia says her workload has increased fivefold.Sophia says rising fuel costs and the cost of treating hives for varroa mite are making beekeepers question whether the lifestyle is worth it. (Supplied)The cost of treatments, along with higher fuel prices and more imported honey on Australian shelves, means running a business is almost not viable."I was crunching numbers at the end of the season and I was like, 'How do I still not have enough money to live, to eat food?'"Sophia says honey production alone would not keep her business alive, so pollinating crops like almonds had become an important source of income."This is a critical industry."One in every three mouthfuls of food that we consume is because of pollinators."We do need beekeepers, that's the reality."'Beekeeping gets in your blood'And that reality is what drives The Bee Drover.Sophia admits she's been under "unbelievably high stress"."But my dad says beekeeping gets in your blood, and I think that's kind of true."My family has been so passionate about it for over a century, the idea of walking away breaks my heart a bit."She hopes her storytelling series can help change consumer behaviour."We need some more things in place to safeguard our industry from fake and adulterated honey."How we do that is out of my hands; I'm just a beekeeper."I just love telling our story because I think it's such a cool story to tell."