NORTH-West honey producers have been locked out of accessing their hives and some have had to be evacuated from the region as the bushfire threat continues to wreak havoc.
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Mawbanna honey producer Blue Hills Honey was evacuated from its farm on Thursday as a bushfire at Mawbanna raged out of control.
The operation relocated to a temporary office space at Tall Timbers on Friday while co-owner Robbie Charles remained behind to fight spot fires that threatened the property.
Co-owner Nicola Charles said it was "too early to tell" what the damage would be to their operations but said the fire "couldn't have come at a worse time".
"We have had some resources burned," she said.
The honey industry is in the middle of its peak harvesting season and Blue Hills Honey had only managed to get off two of its varieties of honey.
"We have done the blueberry and the meadow but we were about to start the leatherwood," she said.
Blue Hills Honey produces leatherwood, manuka, blackberry and meadow varieties of honey.
The farm has between 1700 to 1800 hives in total, with about 500 of them leatherwood hives.
The leatherwood hives are unable to be accessed after emergency services closed the road to the site.
"It's just not safe and I wouldn't feel safe sending anyone down there," Mrs Charles said.
"Plus, it's just not good to be sending bees into the path of the fire."
Mrs Charles said she had been speaking to other producers in the area who were facing similar conditions.
She said it would be too early to tell what the cost of the fires would be to the North-West Coast's honey industry.
Everyone in the region was bracing for the worst as the wind picked up and the fire burned dangerously close to properties on Friday.
The fire at Mawbanna was upgraded to a Watch and Act alert by the Tasmanian Fire Service about noon on Friday.
