Bowral Bees

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Bowral, NSW
Bowral Bees

Bee keeping, local honey sales, hive hosting, nuc bee hive sales, bee courses, bee workshops and bee swarm catching in Bowral & the Southern Highlands

Bee keeper in Bowral. Offering beginner courses, hive hosting and mentoring. Available to collect bee swarms in Bowral and other Southern Highlands locations

05/04/2026

In NZ for a family holiday to hike, bike and catch up with family… but there’s always a focus on bees!

We are staying in Central Otago and have seen a lot of apis mellifera (European honeybees). It’s a harsh landscape but you often see a cluster of commercial hives so the bees must get good honey from what is in the area such as vipers bugloss - a popular flower for bees in the same family as borage.

When traveling I always try and find local honey and so far we’ve tried delicious raw clover honey in Alexandra (Wrights in Ettrick) and from a roadside stall near Wānaka (a wildflower honey).

There are a lot of bumblebees around - likely bombus terrestris - which are an introduced species.

I was thrilled to see a wool carder bee - anthidium manicatum - on flowers near where we are staying. The photo shows a female bee and I also saw a larger male wool carder.

09/03/2026

While visting the National Arboretum in Canberra I was amazed to see these Blue Flower Wasps!

They have stunning blue wings and a metallic looking body… and are huge compared to the honeybees and spider wasps also enjoying the flowering ‘Baby Blue’ eucalyptus.

16/02/2026

Check out this mite count 😬

The hive was thriving 6 weeks ago but it shows how quickly varroa mite numbers are increasing at this time of year.

If we hadn’t checked and added treatment these bees would have only lasted a few more weeks.

So you MUST test every 4 weeks to know your mite count and treat if above threshold.

04/02/2026

Check out the nectar being collected by hives at Kangaloon! Beautiful new wax frames getting filled up 🙌

22/01/2026

Queen spotting challenge - can you find all the queens in these photos?!

Thankfully they’re all marked with a white dot so it should be easy 😉

05/01/2026

Wrapping up 2025 with a huge number of hive inspections… nectar flow, honey being stored, varroa checks, a new vaporizer queen marking… lots of fun 🙌

The next half of this season will be exciting as we settle into more stable varroa numbers, look to harvest surplus honey, and eventually start the process of winter pack down.

12/12/2025

Good things definitely take time… and after two years the bees at beautiful garden have produced their first crop of honey 🍯

It’s so exciting to work with long term bee keeping clients setting up brand new hives and colonies, building through a first year, learning the local climate and flora, to then FINALLY getting just the right conditions for bees to create this divine food. It’s definitely worth the wait!

13/11/2025

If you’re new to my page then hi, I’m Darryn - the beekeeper behind Bowral Bees 🐝

Keeping bees started with just one hive nearly 10 years ago when we wanted better pollination (and honey!) at our property

It soon turned into a full blown bee obsession and we now couldn’t imagine our life without bees humming in the garden, buzzing around the apiary, and harvesting our very own honey is amazing 🍯

I spend my time wrangling hives and swarms all over the Southern Highlands, and teach bee keeping. I love sharing my experience by helping people connect with bees and see just how amazing these little creatures are.

There’s a lot of science in bee keeping but an amazing amount of poetry, magic and light… so bee keeping has something for everyone. My fav quote is “the keeping of bees is like the directing of sunbeams” Thoreau

Photo by Lukas at .weddings

06/11/2025

Mites! It’s sad seeing varroa mites in a bee hive but so far testing and treating is keeping all the hives I manage in the Southern Highlands alive and well.

30/09/2025

Spring! Words can’t describe how beautiful it is right now in the Southern Highlands with spring blossoms galore… and bees are loving it 😍

Which also means it’s peak swarm season - I’ve had numerous calls this week and been able to get lots of swarms into a hive box to take care of.

If you see a bee swarm in the local area let me know. They’re much better off in a hive and less chance of them starting a hive where they’re not wanted eg a wall or a chimney!

Thanks to for the awesome photos 🙌

07/09/2025

Happy Father’s Day to all the bee-autiful people out there with kids they take care of.

I was spoilt with an amazing pancake breakfast and some lovely pressies… and this amazing card ❤️

Keep bee-ing amazing!

01/09/2025

Spring is here! The 1st of September marks the calendar start of the bee season, even if our weather likes to throw back to winter every now and then.

It’s a beautiful time as the Southern Highlands suddenly bursts into life with blossoms - just look at these white plum flowers ❤️

I checked our home hives last week and the bees are well underway with lots of brood, pollen and nectar.

Sadly it wasn’t all good news as I lost one hive to starvation ☹️

Looking forward to a good season hopefully full of new bees and honey!

Address

543 Moss Vale Road
Bowral, NSW
2576

Telephone

+61403822281

Website

http://bowralbees.com.au/

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