Urban Hum

Urban Honey—once thriving in Newcastle—is now focused on pollinator habitat restoration & education.

Urban Hum wants you to become part of the change that is bringing bees back to cities around the world. Urban beekeeping brings sustainability to your community providing access to produce that is truly local. Watch the flowers, fruits and vegetables in your neighbourhood become unique urban honey. By joining in the beekeeping journey you will reduce food miles and give back to the world by ensuring the honeybees survival.

20/06/2025

One week down in Korea, it’s been busy. Checking queen mating success at 6am, conducting experiments to understand how to find making new friends, finding great uses for golden teapots and learning how the South Koreans treat for and tropilaelaps. Always things to learn so amazing to have this opportunity of the sponsored Saskia Beer

15/06/2025

Oh Thailand, I am not ready to say goodbye! It’s been such a wild time.

Five species of honeybees, countless stingless bees.

Generous researchers and students including Dr Bomb, Dr T**d, Pan, Wan, Eaf, View, Oh, Aiy, Buun and Ghung.

Welcoming beekeepers like Mr Don, Dumrong and Poinoun the Apis cerana bee keepers and the Director and head beekeeper at The Agricultural Technology Promotion Centre for Economic Insects TharaThip and Payom.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wisdom, knowledge sharing and welcome.

Here I come South Korea!

11/06/2025

One of the key reasons for my is too learn about this little nasty, Tropilaelaps mites.

This mite has many mysteries and although lots of researchers, citizen scientists and beekeepers around the world now have their steely eyed gazes firmly focused on Tropi there is much we still don’t know.

So with that in mind, part of my investigation here is to try to understand how Tropi gets into a beehive. In collaboration with the team from Chiang Mai University - Meliponini and Apini Research Lab (MARL) we are collecting entrance bees.

First we collected and alcohol washed foragers. After that I figured out what time the local drones flew out and returned from their potential mating flights.

Once we had that info we fitted pollen traps just before the time they commence returning to the hives to exclude and catch the drones. Pollen traps allow foragers to pass through but not the larger boys, making it easy to pluck them from the front. Results aren’t in yet but hopefully we may collect some good data!

06/06/2025

My time in Thailand is flying by. I have been hanging out with the research crew from the Meliponini and Apini Research Laboratory (MARL) from Chiang Mai University headed by Dr Bajaree Chuttong.

The team are looking at, among many other things, novel protein supplements for bees, both stingless and honey bees.

Because they have long pollen and nectar dearth’s they are searching for supplements that can be made by beekeepers using everyday, easily available ingredients. The key protein ingredients being tested right now are- beef, pork and chicken!

My mind was blown when I heard this, the clear winner at this stage for both stingless and honey bees appears to be chicken. The supplements also contain pollen and soy flour. A paper will be published once the study is finished.

26/05/2025

Yesterday was my first full day in Thailand in beautiful Chiang Mai. Thailand is the second leg of my Saskia Beer Churchill Fellowship.

Thailand is the native home to 4 of the world’s 10 honey bee species. And I saw 3 of the 4 in 1 square metre of weeds!

Giant honey bees- Apis dorsata (the original host of Tropilaelaps mites)

Red Dwarf honey bees- Apis florea

Asian honey bee- Apis cerana

I also saw a beautiful solitary native bee, which I am yet to identify. And of course the ubiquitous European honeybee is also here. The insect life is incredible it’s a bug nerds heaven.

16/05/2025

I have finally come to grips with my new macro lens, without a tripod it’s been a challenge!

Check out the size difference between and mites. These photos are super zoomed in, varroa is about 1.5-2mm wide and 1-1.8mm long. In comparison tropi is about 0.5mm wide and 1mm long. With the naked eye, well my naked eyes anyway tropi look like a speck of dust!

Understanding how to detect and identify Tropilaelaps mites is a big part of my fellowship journey. 2 weeks in and I feel confident I can now positively ID them, after looking at 100’s of them in washes, brood cells and on sticky mats I’ve got my eye in.

10/05/2025

The fruit here is amazing, so delicious and flavourful. The tropical landscape grows a huge variety of produce.

Some will be familiar like the Tamarillo and Guava. Others like the second image is new to me, it’s called Sweetfruit and looks a lot like a passionfruit but it tastes subtlety like all the tropical fruit flavours at once with a hint of floral perfume. My description does not in any way do this delight justice.

08/05/2025

Yesterday I got up close and personal with mites for the first time.

Nothing prepared me for the size of them. Despite knowing they were small, despite seeing photos, videos and size comparisons with they are minuscule and so, so fast. Varroa is a giant lumbering bus and tropi is a Ferrari.

After a day spent in the field in hives Dr Cooper Schouten and I spent hours pulling out bee pupae and sampling mites, I could barely see straight afterwards. For comparison the photos show mites next to a 20 cent coin and at the tip of a hive tool!

04/05/2025

And I am off on the first leg of my trip. I am so excited to have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study ectoparasitic mites of honey bees overseas. Not only was I awarded a fellowship, but I was fortunate to receive a sponsored fellowship- the Saskia Beer Churchill Fellowship supported by Maggie and Colin Beer, in honour of their daughter Saskia. Maggie and Colin support fellows who are researching in areas relating to agriculture, food systems and food security. Of course, we all know how crucial honey bees are to our food systems and pollination dependent agriculture and horticulture. Did you know 35 crops are dependent on pollination in Australia? With many others partially pollinated by managed honey bee colonies. We now have Varroa in Australia, and we can learn lessons by looking at what others do overseas, we are also faced with the looming threat of another mite Tropilaelaps. It is more important than ever that we are prepared should Tropi mites ever make it to Australia, by working with leading researchers in Papua New Guinea, Thailand and South Korea it is my hope to share with Australian beekeepers’ new knowledge and understanding of both Varroa management and Tropi detection, monitoring and management. I will be departing for my two months of travel on the 5th of May.
https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/kelly-lees-nsw-2024/

23/04/2025

Here at Urban Hum, we have always had a love and passion for bees, beekeeping, and the people that keep them. Just like life, in recent years, beekeeping has been a journey full of highs and lows. For many of you, just like us, we lost our bees in the tough but necessary attempt to rid ourselves of Varroa. Sadly, the attempt failed, and many of us were left bereft and unsure how to carry on. It was some time before we dived back into beekeeping—but we did. We have two hives at home, and we are learning to live with Varroa. Our bees are coming into their second winter and are looking good as we work to get our mite loads low.

Keeping bees with Varroa in Australia is a steep learning curve for everyone. If you have one hive or a thousand, you will make mistakes, you might lose colonies, but you will learn. We will figure out this new reality together because Aussie beekeepers are tough and creative.

Before Kelly Lees embarks on her Churchill Fellowship adventure, join us to celebrate her invaluable contributions to native pollinator education and sustainable honey production.
Saturday 26th April
✨ 2pm – Citizen science & community weeding
✨ 3pm – Varroa deep-dive + open Q&A with Kelly

🎟️ Book your free spot: https://shorturl.at/5SMri

16/04/2025

🌿🐝 We're Back—for a Very Special Event! 🐝🌿

Urban Hum may have closed after our hives were eradicated, but our love for bees—and the beekeeping community—still runs deep. 💛

We’re opening up the Urban Hum Tiny Forest for a special gathering with our co-founder Kelly Lees, who’s about to embark on a Winston Churchill Trust - AU Fellowship to explore how beekeepers around the world are managing Varroa and other emerging threats.

This is your chance to reconnect, share your experiences, and help shape what Kelly focuses on during her trip. We’ve now got two beautiful hives in our family, and we know many of you are finding your own path in this new era of beekeeping. Let’s navigate it together.

🐝 Beekeepers Q&A: Living with Varroa – A Conversation with Kelly Lees
📍 Urban Hum Tiny Forest (address on booking)
🗓️ Saturday 26 April 3pm
🕑 Arrive at 2pm for citizen science & weeding!
🎟️ Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/beekeepers-qa-living-with-varroa-a-conversation-with-kelly-lees-tickets-1329138331529?aff=oddtdtcreator

05/09/2024

Getting ready for the New Lambton Heights Infants P & C community planting day for pollinators on Sunday 🌱😞

Address

Newcastle, NSW
2300

Website

http://www.urbanhum.com/

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