"We use the European Honey Bee, so it evolves from the northern hemisphere. It's natural for that bee to have a brood break; a prelonged absence of no baby bees inside the box," he says.
"In most areas of Australia we don't have that and dealing with varroa, it's going to be an important way of minimising our reliance on synthetic chemicals to deal with this problem.
"Bring the bees out of hibernation about now, ready to build up for pollinations."
Ben says there are plenty of other benefits as well.
"Freezing the bees will help to increase the longevity of queen stocks, by giving them a break from doing the heavy workload they do throughout summer.
"There's no reason to shut our bees now if we don't need to. It's for post-varroa incursion."
