As the weather heats up, the bees get busy. We’re all hoping for a great season. But the hotter weather also brings with it possible bee pests including small hive beetle, especially if you’re beekeeping in wam-temperate Australia. Here’s some tips for … Continued
A backyard full of kids toys, chickens, veggies and bees is one kind of backyard that we love. Kids and bees, though. Can they happily co-habit? The answer is Yes! We caught up with Emily Gimellaro from Wilton recently about … Continued
Harvesting a box of warré honeycomb is an exciting event in any beekeeping year – its a sign that your bees have so much honey stored that taking a full box of honeycomb off the top of the hive won’t even be … Continued
Starter strips are a great way to encourage your bees to build their natural comb straight off your top bars. Because straight comb means easier harvest and inspection, which means less disturbance to your bees. Preparing starter strips for your … Continued
Our bees are back! We’ve set up a small Warré apiary at Buena Vista Farm on the coast at Gerringong. This will be a little different from beekeeping in the dry inland hills of Mudgee… 18 months ago we said goodbye to our … Continued
It was hot, and humid, and threatening to storm. Perfect weather for catching our first honeybee swarm. We got the alert via our friends Adam + Fiona of Buenavista Farm – the usual bush telegraph story – someone called them … Continued
Have you seen the latest edition of Organic Gardener Magazine? It contains an article we wrote, about the principles of natural beekeeping. We really wanted to write this article from a principles based approach for a couple of reasons – primarily because … Continued
One way to obtain yourself a healthy honeybee colony to put in your hive is to catch a swarm. While this might sound daunting, catching a swarm is entirely doable, and there’s many ways to go about it. Swarming is an optimistic … Continued
Selecting a good site for your apiary can make a huge difference to honeybee health, and your hive’s honey harvest too. Here’s some important things to consider when choosing a site. Natural Beekeeping is about stewarding honeybee colonies in place, … Continued
If you’re a Natural Beekeeper, then beeswax is part of your harvest – when you crush your natural comb to extract the honey, there’s beeswax to spare. That’s how beekeeping with natural comb works. It’s a good thing for your bees, because … Continued
Here’s a few photos from our Autumn Natural Beekeeping course in Sydney, and some resources for you to be reading over Winter. These shots are from opening a hive that Adam Kennedy, who hosts our Natural Beekeeping courses, caught as … Continued
It’s fab, it’s new, and the honey flows straight into the jar. It’s so easy. But then, powdered instant potato is easy, too. Does that make it a good idea? Despite my mission to focus on positivistic messages of change, at … Continued
One of the gorgeous features of a Warré Hive is their cute gabled roofs. In Australia, those gables help primarily with insulating the hive from extreme heat (and therefore lowering colony stress) by providing circulation. The Warré Hive was, however, … Continued
