Loadsa yabber

There's plenty for the Australian beekeepers to talk about at the annual Australian Honey Bee Industry Council in Launceston, Tasmania:

• they are looking to protect the name of Tasmanian Leatherwood honey internationally. But Chairman Julian Wolfhagen is quoted as saying: “it's a way of protecting unique intellectual property that belongs to Tasmania.” Pardon? Intellectual property?
  
  
• they've admitted that bees aren't always good for the environment: “There are small pockets of plants that shouldn't have bees on them and we as an industry acknowledge that and we want beekeepers to acknowledge that and not to use those areas,” said Executive director Stephen Ware. Now, I know that Australia is very, very big, but how on earth do you stop swarms invading such areas?
  
  
• and soon they will be able to export honey to New Zealand following the controversial lifting of import restrictions. New Zealand has issued a new import health standard for bee products from Australia allowing untreated bee products from Western Australia, where European Foulbrood disease is believed to be absent, and heat treatment for bee products from the rest of the country.