Bowral Bees

07/08/2026

Learn bee keeping this Soring 🐝

Course dates are:
Sunday September 6th
Sunday October 18th
Sunday November 8th

Can’t make those days? Message me as I always have several people keen to make a course.

Booking link in first comment below

03/08/2026

Awesome to be featured in the Bee Store’s article on bee keepers dealing with varroa.

Well worth a read to hear the different stories, treatments and results from around Australia.

https://thebeestore.com.au/blogs/bee-blog/varroa-stories-small-business-community-beekeepers

The Bee Store

Six Australian small-business, sideliner and community beekeepers share their varroa detection stories, treatment lessons and warnings, from Rick (commercial QLD) to Bec (sideliner VIC, first mite detected 27 June 2026).

21/07/2026

You wouldn’t know it’s mid winter with this much activity!

These bees are making the most of a warm July day and already bringing in pollen - some wattle species are flowering in the Highlands.

I did an oxalic acid varroa mite treatment to get numbers down as low as possible before spring kicks in.

20/05/2026

World Bee Day 🐝🐝🐝

We are celebrating World Bee Day with an exciting announcement: we are thrilled to be partnering with Moss Vale Public School to host a hive for them at our apiary and bringing on all their students as apprentice bee keepers!

The school will be purchasing a hive that will live at the Bowral Bees Apiary and be cared for by us. Students will be learning the art and importance of beekeeping and will help with inspections, honey extraction and the eating of their very own honey!! 🍯🍯🍯

We were honored to present the new hive to the school at a special assembly as part of their whole day celebrating bees.

On behalf of the bees, thank you Moss Vale PS and welcome to the wonderful world of beekeeping!

15/05/2026

The fight against varroa mite may have become just a little easier with Aluen Cap oxalic acid strips now available in Australia.

I see them as a much better option than synthetic treatments which can taint honey with chemicals or taste.

Love the hand written note from 😍 Such a thoughtful, positive thing to do - while my hives and those I manage have done alright this year it’s been incredibly tough for bee keepers dealing with mites and hive losses.

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 😉