About Me

My bee career all started when I had to come up with an innovative idea for school and present it to the class. I have always loved honey and had it on my weet-bix every morning, and all the rage that had started up about bees gave me the idea of building a certain type of beehive (that I actually made with my Dad) that would support native stingless bees. So I got to work trying to find the pro’s and con’s of having these beehives up in trees in all the parks across Victoria, I learnt a lot about what European honey bees do and why they are better for beekeepers than the native bees. I made a presentation with all the facts and brought in the beehive I made to school and I got 100% on my assessment! I then went on and sent a proposal to the council and they unfortunately declined it.
So that was the end of that. But I was still really fascinated with the European honey bees and how many positive effects they have on the world, and how beneficial all the bi-products are from the beehives. So my parents knew a friend that had a beehive, and he got us one as well! The two months I was waiting for him to grow the beehive more for me, I read 3 books about bees, Robert Owens beekeeping guide, The Accidental beekeeper and Beekeeping a practical guide. All amazing books. I got my bees on the 13th of December 2018 and loved working with such an amazing and mesmerizing force of nature! I checked them once every 2-3 weeks and was just waiting to open it next, I had a chair right next to the beehive and watched them work all day. There was endless information to research about and told my parents about a million facts a day! Unfortunately I didn't get any honey that year because there was next to no rain for the whole year.

So the spring of 2019 I went looking for a new hive really early in August and had no luck, before I went any further, I had to get a lid and base for my beehive, so I went to my local beekeeper Bens Bees! I called him up and Dad and I met with him to collect the lid and base. We had a big chat talking about bees and I asked him how much it would be to get a swarm from him, and because I had gotten it for free the year before the 3 digit sum almost made me faint! Ben, reading my expression asked me to make a deal in return for a swarm. So I said to him, I’ll give you a box of lollies and chocolates (my Mum and Dad own a Wallies Lollies (a lolly shop) and 2 days of solid work. At the end of the two interesting but exhausting days, I got to pick my swarm! Naturally I picked the best one and it has built up to be so strong! At the end of the two days I had learn so much, fell in love with bahn-mi’s (our daily lunch) and asked Ben if he wanted me to work for him and he said yes! So we applied for an underage working certificate as I was only 13. I also joined the Doncaster Beekeeping Club where I met a really nice man called Keith, he helped to get 2 swarms and I ended the season with 4 hives and a small honey harvest.

The bee season of 2020 started over the winter, where Dad and I bought lots of bee building equipment including wire, flat packs of frames, flat packs of bee boxes, metal lid sheets, eyelets, nails and beeswax foundation. Because I underestimated the size of the task we started building everything as we were nearing the start of the 2020 spring season. Wiring up the frames was a huge job, as we ended up wiring enough for about 15 boxes (120 frames). Alas the season had arrived! But it wasn’t as exciting as we thought, the bees were confused with the constant change in rain and shine and didn’t want to swarm, or at least there weren’t enough swarms for the hobbyist beekeepers. The weather got hotter and hotter and fires started to pop up in NSW.   I had managed to get a few swarms here and there and get some from Keith, but most of my new hives came from splitting my existing ones. I ended the season with 14 hives and quite a large harvest.

So far in 2021 I spent most of my winter building, painting and waiting for the season to come. I have collected 5 swarms and 1 split and I have hives at 9 different properties. All in all I have 21 hives at the moment but I’ll update at the end of the season!