Wagga is reportedly seeing a surge in amateur apiarists as more residents take up beekeeping.
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Local beekeeper Phil Roberts says community interest in the insect is now bigger than ever before.
"I think people are probably becoming more aware of the importance of bees for food production," he said.
Mr Roberts, who runs Three Hives Beekeeping, is regularly called out to rescue swarms of feral honeybees from around Wagga.
He rehomes some of them by building and maintaining hives for residents who then share their honey.
"It's been really surprising. The first twelve months I didn't think I was going to get any hosts," he said.
"I've been doing it for four years and I'm at the stage now where I can't take on any more hosts. I'm still getting phone calls from people every week and I simply have to say no, I'm sorry, there's only one of me."
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One Wagga enthusiast is former school principal Helen O'Connell, who loves her honeybees even though she would be terribly allergic if they stung her.
"Only about a year ago ... down near Thorne Street I was walking and one landed on my foot and my leg just swelled up," she said.
"But with my bees, I talk to them, they know me. They buzz around me but they never land on me. They seem to know your scent. They're an amazing critter, they really are."
Mrs O'Connell's passion began unexpectedly about four years ago in her Central Wagga garden.
"A dear friend of mine before he died gave me a lovely homemade parrot box," Mrs O'Connell said.
"So I got someone to hang it exactly four metres high and facing east and all the right things, for the parrots to come and hopefully in time nest."
About a week later she went outside and heard "an electrical buzz in the air", which turned out to be a swarm of bees which had moved into her bird box.
"About six months later there was honey dripping out of that box ... so we looked up in the phone book and found the beekeeper Phil.
"We're still waiting for the parrots ... But in the meantime, years later, he has built the amazing beehive."
Mrs O'Connell believes the little creatures are still widely misunderstood.
"We need to educate people more about their importance, particularly pollinating in our own gardens and for the agricultural industry generally," she said.