AFB Levy Payments

CLICK HERE for the Levy Process Flow Chart

What does the levy fund provide?

Click here for information on what the levy fund provides beekeepers.

How is the AFB levy calculated?

The rate of levy is $40 ($46 including GST) per beekeeper and $1.95 ($2.24 including GST) per bee colony owned by each beekeeper as at 31 March.

What is a bee colony?

A bee colony is an active/living group of bees. Usually, but not always, containing a Queen and worker honey bees.  A bee colony includes nucleus hives as well as active/living bee hives.

I don’t have any live beehives at the moment, do I need to pay this AFB levy invoice?

Beekeepers that did not have a live honey bee colony on 31 March but still have a registered apiary (i.e. they are a registered beekeeper) are required to pay the $40 base levy. Apiary sites must be registered if they have one or more beehives located on them irrespective of whether those beehives are alive or dead.

Beekeepers without any live beehives that wish to cancel their beekeeper registration must remove any deadout beehives from the apiary site and place it into storage prior to deregistering the apiary. If you wish to cancel you beekeeper registration please click here. Your levies will be cleared once this cancellation form has been processed.

What should I do if I am levied for the wrong number of bee colonies?

You can either:

1. Login to HiveHub,
   1. check that the number of honey bee colonies recorded on each apiary are correct and make corrections as required, then
   2. submit your Colony Return via HiveHub, then
   3. send an email to [email protected] advising that you require a revised invoice as per the updated Colony Return submitted. An amended invoice will be sent to you once the Colony Return has been processed.

What is a Colony Return?

A Colony Return is a statutory return required for levy collection purposes.

All beekeepers are legally required to declare the number of bee colonies they own on 31 March each year.