Expert on 'birds and the bees' talks future of honey in Australia

He's also the president of the NSW Pheasant and Waterfowl Society, was NSW Department of Primary Industries' technical specialist for 35 years, and received the highest accolade an Australian beekeeper can have, the Goodacre Memorial Award.

Dr Somerville shares the importance of their essential pollination services towards native plants, pastures, crops, fruits and vegetables.

The earliest memory he had about the nectar of the gods was that his father had honey in his tea. Due to a love for flora and fauna, the highly-respected apiarist has since dedicated more than 45 years to understanding honey bees.

Within a working shed on his property in Buckajo, west of Bega, rests a multitude of breeding boxes each spray painted in modern day hieroglyphs and symbols to assist young queens back to their colonies.

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On land situated within local bush and across fields of rolling hills, Dr Somerville is the manager of 150 hives with approximately 30,000 honey bees in each.

"Bees are extremely efficient and useful pollinators to a whole range of crops, horticultural and economic crops that we grow to feed ourselves, so they're an integral part of our food chain, and I think historically they are undervalued," he said.

"We're pretty ignorant of the insect world as humans, but as biomass they're actually greater than humans or all other animals. There are things that are a pain in the butt like flies, mosquitoes and ants, but there are a whole range of insects that are very useful."

Unfortunately, low levels of the varroa mite have been discovered in the Bega Valley, and once the parasite infects a colony, it will kill it.

Dr Somerville said all unmanaged wild bee colonies would die.

"The equivalent in keeping chooks is letting them be free ranged 24/7 and not worrying about foxes, and now we've got the fox and if we don't lock chooks up, we're going to lose them. The landscape has changed down here in the beekeeping scene for the worst," he said.

He said the businesses producing honey would do better to capture narratives rather than just selling the product, and explained how society had elevated fermented grapes to such a level it was now a prestigious drink that could cost a fortune.

"All honeys have some level of microbial activity. Honey is acid so it's very antagonistic towards lots of microbes, it's hygroscopic [meaning] it draws moisture out of the wounds, [and] honey is an amazing product," Dr Somerville said.

"It's unique to the source of the plant so it has very distinct flavours, aroma, and distinct colour, and it's viscosity will change according to the climate whether desert or coast. Some are really spectacular, but they label everything as 'just honey' instead of the story behind it.

"We've got it in the cheese game, we've got it in the wine game, even our microbreweries and distilleries, and they are all selling localised versions of a product that's universally available and people get excited about that, but in the honey game, very few sell the story."