Bowral Beekeeping

20/12/2024

Christmas honey harvest! How much honey did you get this season? One of our lucky clients has had a bumper season already, and will be giving honey to their friends and family this year. Such a pleasure to be able to gift a taste of your own home and district.

13/12/2024

Swarm capture. At this time of the year with some nicer weather, we can expect the occasional swarm from colonies that aren’t being managed as carefully as possible. It’s a natural part of the reproductive cycle of the colony nothing to worry about. In fact at the beginning of this clip, I wasn’t wearing a suit at all. The bees really don’t care about you. All they want to do is make sure they find their queen. If you find a swarm, there’s no need to panic. Take a photo if you’re comfortable to do so and get in touch with us here at Bowral Beekeeping or if you’re not in the southern Highlands snap a photo and post it on your local Facebook group There will be a beekeeper there who can come and collect it and remove it for you. Often beekeepers charge a fee to remove a swarm which covers insurance, etc..

04/12/2024

Where do you store your honey? A lot of raw unfiltered cold pressed honeys will go candied overtime, especially in cooler weather. I like to store my Manuka honey on the windowsill. It’s such a pretty color and the gentle warmth keeps it liquid. We’re just about to release our Christmas 2024 Manuka for the very first time. It’s delicious. Drop us a line if you’d like to pre-order some.

27/11/2024

Famous! (almost..). A huge thanks to destination_nsw for a feature in their email newsletter that just came out! So lovely to be part of the agritourism push within the state. The newsletter goes out to over 400K subscribers!

24/11/2024

Is this capew**d? Whatever it is, it’s super pretty at an undisclosed location here in the Southern Highlands. My local clients are getting the prettiest wax, looks like highlighter pen! I’ll be fascinated to see what the honey is like!

21/11/2024

Blackberry honey! Has anyone tried it? It’s one of the few honeys that actually taste like the fruit. The whole district is covered in blackberry flowers right now, and although it’s a w**d, it’s also great for the bees! If you’re considering spraying your blackberries could I ask you to wait till most of the flowers have dropped off, and then spray at dusk when the bees aren’t foraging. :)

19/11/2024

Ants on Manuka. Going for a bushwalk in the nearby Morton National Park it was a pleasure to see all of the Manuka flowering and this delightful little ant doing their job collecting nectar. As beekeepers we tend to focus on our European honeybees and their work as pollinators, however as the recent international Pollinator Week showcased, there are SO many animals, insects, and weather that can fertilise the plants around us. Very excited to announce that we will be having Manuka honey for sale in about two weeks. It’s a raw unfiltered example of this famous honey. It will crystallize quickly so we’re gently keeping it warming while we wait for a new shipment of jars to arrive.

18/11/2024

Honey Helpers! (juniors wanted). We’re looking for some helpers on the weekends to run the honey stall. As they / you will be working unsupervised at times, ideal age is 15+. Above award rates. I would need some availability through till end of December / January. I am having a chat with young people on Wednesday Thursday this week at 4pm at the apiary. Please DM me for a chat.

04/11/2024

Co**se flower. At the teaching apiary we have the weirdest flower that pops up every year. It is a Dranculus Lily that emits a foul stink to attract flies to pollinate itself. Pop by this weekend 9-3pm to meet our weird friend! Literally this weekend only. Next week it will collapse.

02/11/2024

Beekeeping helpers. Looking for some beekeepers to help me with some large tour groups at a new site I’m setting up. You’d need a basic understanding of the lifecycle of bees and be confident opening a hive, lifting frames and sharing your knowledge and enjoyment. The groups range from corporate teams, homeschooling groups, seniors and overseas visitors. Get in touch for a chat 0428294569 or [email protected]

18/10/2024

Pollination! Out the front of the apiary is the most perfect example of what our bees do to pollinate the food that we eat. Pop by the honey stall and taste part of that process. Destination NSW

16/09/2024

Tasting kit? We keep getting asked for a boxed hamper kind of thing. I found these boxes which fit 4x of our mini jars perfectly. Not sure if they’ll work but I’ll put them on the stall tomorrow at Tulip Time Southern Highlands and let you know how they go.

12/09/2024

Yay! Tulip Time Southern Highlands is ON! Magnificent displays and lots of interesting stallholders. Every day took the 30th September. 9-3pm, free entry for locals.

11/09/2024

Tulip Time! It’s on! We’re setting up this afternoon for a wonderful 18x days of all things tulips, springtime and cool climate gardens. The tulips are magnificent, congratulations to the garden team at Wingecarribee Shire Council and the Tulip Time Southern Highlands committee. More photos this afternoon when we’ve set up.












grandpacificdrive

09/09/2024

Blossom watch! Every year on the Cherry Tree Walk there is only a few days in which the cherry blossoms are at a peak. My apiary is just near these beautiful trees, so every day I’ll post a quick video and let people know when they’re perfect. One year there was literally a few hours on one day that they were perfect before the dreaded wind came up and shredded everything. It’s also a great thing as a beekeeper as my bees are making Cherry honey!

07/08/2024

Vale Denis Garbutt . Denis was a mate through beekeeping. We first met on an advanced beekeeping course where he promptly started helping out our lecturer Harvey and mentoring some of the less experienced participants. We became friends and we worked together on many tourism groups. He was patient, highly experienced and always interested in a chat, sharing his great depth of knowledge and latest ideas and approaches. There will be a memorial service on Monday 12th August 2024 commencing at 11:00am. Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 15 Church Street Bundanoon. Followed by a wake at the Bundanoon Club at 1230.

The link to the funeral directors notice is https://beavansfunerals.com.au/notices-live-stream/client/?nid=ce4f9ec1-a969-45b3-865d-1f4e99014975&t=service-details

04/08/2024

A lovely profile! Thanks Guys!

Hamish Ta-mé, the man behind Bowral Beekeeping, got his first bees at high school and never looked back - keeping bees on and off ever since. 🐝🍯🙌

Bowral Beekeeping got its start when Hamish lost his corporate job during the pandemic.

“It was a simple and organic transition,” he says “It started with my neighbours and friends asking to look at my hives in the backyard. I then bought a few extra suits and listed it on an experiences website. Within a year, ‘AirBeenN Bee' was Australia’s top ranked experience, and the rest is history.

Bowral Beekeeping now employs more than seven staff who run agritourism experiences, workshops and tours of the working apiary (honey farm).

Once a year Bowral Beekeeping run a festival called Honeyland - a celebration of honey, bees and beekeeping with free talks, honey tasting, equipment demonstrations and around 20 local stallholders.

“Regional NSW is such a dynamic and exciting place to live and work.” Hamish says. “Here in Bowral we’ve got a wonderful mix of natural beauty, alongside amazing food and wine options, great arts and culture and a genuine sense of community.”

“You can literally go from drinking coffee with some mates from bookclub in a funky cafe and then be in farmland, alongside a river or in the bush in under 15 minutes.”

30/07/2024

Tulip Time Southern Highlands preparation. I’ve been thinking of a new way of presenting our honeys for the upcoming Tulip Time festival. I’m thinking about black pvc tablecloths, with these planks presenting the honeys. A few trips to for timber and varnish. Also lots of inspo from the recent Bridgerton events in Bowral with their extensive floral displays. We’ll keep you posted!