Contents
Introduction
I never set out to become a beekeeper; the bees found me and my life has been different ever since. I started my working life cooking chickens at a supermarket in Fremantle, Western Australia. My family, being part Italian, has always had a strong connection with food and where it comes from, so it was a strange place to begin. My grandmother and aunts used to make all their own cheese, wine, vinegar (sometimes it was hard to tell the wine from the vinegar) and smallgoods. They grew pretty much all their own greens, had about 30 chickens, kept pigeons and were largely self-sustained. I grew up eating amazing food.
I moved on from chickens and studied cinematography, then worked for a large film lab. Later I worked in news and current affairs at a TV station, and finally got into IT and marketing. Along the way I discovered that I could build and fix pretty much anythingand that I loved food.
In 2009 or thereabouts I was reading about food trends (I had just started reviving the cheese-making of my familys past) when I read about clandestine rooftop beekeeping in New York and the massive problems bees face in most of the world due to widespread diseases. Wow, I thought, why dont I know about this? I realised that here in Australia nobody seemed to know that bees were really in trouble. I decided to do something about it and started reading book after book on beekeeping.
I had been selling honey on behalf of my local community association at a farmers market for some time with no interest in actually having bees of my own, but as I read more and more I became hooked, and was eventually given my first hive by my then father-in-law. It was a baptism of fire as it was a most badly behaved hive with very grumpy beeseven the fearless Ian from the local bee club wouldnt handle the bees unless he was fully kitted up.
I also joined the Amateur Beekeepers Association of New South Wales Sutherland branch, which at the time was the closest to my home, some 45 minutes drive away. My first visit to the club revealed a room full of older, mainly male members, presided over by a man with a gavel who was hard of hearing. What was immediately apparent was the huge amount of knowledge these people had, and as they were not getting any younger I decided to get involved and save the knowledge before it disappeared.
From there I became the president of the NSW association, a position that had been empty for some years, and started banging on about bees to anybody who would listen.
I met my business partner Vicky via the association and we formed The Urban Beehive, our aim being to place beehives in community gardens, backyards and cafs. Our first commercial beehive installation was at the Swissotel in Sydneys CBD; we nervously wheeled four beehives full of stinging insects through the hotel and installed them near the pool on the roof. They were a success and we now have a growing number of sites and hives, and beekeeping is a large part of my day-to-day life.
We started the Sydney City Branch of the Amateur Beekeepers Association in 2012 and its grown rapidly, with a lot of much younger members than the other branches. Many of our members have backyards with chickens and vegetable gardens and see bees as just another type of produce.
In my beevangelist work (as I like to call it) I find myself in fairly constant demand talking to a growing sphere of people via all sorts of media, from my blog to radio, newspaper and TVeven taking part in a TV cooking segment.
One of the unbelievable things that I have discovered talking to people about bees is that we are so disconnected from our food. Many people dont even realise that bees pollinate our food and that without them we have a major problem... and a very boring diet of grain.
Bees have a bad rap and I would like to try to educate people about how easy bees are to keep; they dont take a lot of time and by having a hive you are helping the planet, and your neighbours vegetable patch.
Beekeeping is now the new black; lots of people are giving it a try or have been given a beehive as a giftI receive a number of calls at Christmas from people wanting to buy beehivesand need guidance. I have read just about every bee book there is and they are often so dry and preachy that no bearded hipster is going to pick them up.
I hope the bee stories in this book will inspire some enthusiastic new beekeepers, who in turn will pass on their skills, continuing the time-honoured beekeeping tradition.
Since writing the first edition of Backyard Bees , our city bee locations have grown and Ive had the pleasure of introducing many new beekeepers to the buzz of bees. In short, my life now has many more bees in it... if thats possible.
Ive even been called in to help guide four competing families in a TV show, where city bees were pitted against country bees to make the tastiest honey. (No, Im not telling you who won.) With this new edition I have included some ideas about how to support native bees, as all our pollinators need a hand. So even if you never pick up a smoker, you can pick up a herb or two and help our buzzy friends.