Bees have emerged as an unlikely beneficiary of the coronavirus pandemic - latest data from Agriculture Victoria shows the number of registered beekeepers across the state has risen by 43 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic to 14,000, creating an additional 28,000 hives.

There are 66 registered beekeepers in Warrnambool (268 hives) 61 in Portland (611 hives) and 13 in Orford and Port Fairy (220 hives) though figures would likely be higher taking into consideration those who are yet to register.

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Amid the growing hobby, Agriculture Victoria bee biosecurity officer Ally Driessen said the work of two sentinel hives at Portland was as important as ever.

"I call the them honeybee pest warriors," Ms Driessen said.

"Australia is the last major honey producing country in the world that doesn't have the Varroa mite. It's responsible for colony collapse all throughout the world - because they're so far away, we've always been really, really lucky to keep it out.

"Now that the varroa mite is in New Zealand, we need to be more vigilant than ever before. If there's a ship or cargo coming into Victoria, there could potentially be an infected swarm on it. In Portland, there are two sentinel hives and if any ships are sitting out in Henty Bay for a week, if the hives were to catch any sicknesses from that ship, then we would pick it up really fast."

The sentinel hives are monitored and checked every six weeks and other beekeepers within a five-kilometre radius are often asked to complete sugar shakes and drone uncapping, which are key tools to test the health of beehives.

She said that was why it was vitally important recreational beekeepers registered.

"Not everybody actually registers their hives, which is actually quite critical for us," she said.

"If we're doing our normal testing down in Portland and we find something suspicious in the hive and it comes back saying we found an exotic pest, we would let beekeepers in that immediate vicinity know to perform testing for us to find the extent of the spread and to make sure it didn't get onto the land.

"If beekeepers aren't registered, that's a really big risk for us. It's actually free for someone to register one to five hives, so there's no reason as to why people shouldn't register."

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