Bees With Ben

Episode 104 of the Bees with Ben podcast documents the extraordinary progress of a ground- breaking Australian small business. Against all odds, they launched their product just a week before Covid restrictions were announced in February 2020. John McArthur, of Banana Feeds Australia, says that he and his business partner, Robert Borsato (who is a third generation banana grower), were sick of seei...

Antony Adare from Natural Life is our featured guest on episode 103 of the Bees with Ben podcast. Almost 30 years ago the chance discovery of a native beehive in a Sydney backyard developed into a daily source of fascination for Antony, who soon established a hobby hive for himself. Then in 1994, a Japanese scientist published a paper extolling the anticarcinogenic properties of propolis, which re...

Originally from Brazil, Karen Santos was an undergraduate biology student when she volunteered for an intern project working with beekeepers and palynologists (who specialise in the study of pollen) to examine the diet of honey bees on the Brazilian savannah in 2012. This triggered a fascination with bees and led to further research, particularly in the different aspects of pollen ecology. In 2019...

 Episode 101 of the Bees with Ben podcast showcases the research of Dr Trong Tran, who lectures in chemistry at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and the magical substance known as propolis! Ben met Trong at the recent 4 th Australian Bee Congress in Sydney and knew immediately that his work on propolis would make for a fascinating chat. Propolis is well known to have antioxidant qualitie...

We’re celebrating! The Bees with Ben podcast has reached 100 episodes. And the 100 th episode is very special, being co-hosted Dan Curless from Curless Aussie Apiaries. Our distinguished guest is Bob Binnie of the Blue Ridge Honey Company from Northeast Georgia in the US. Bob has been a commercial beekeeper since 1981; after reading a book on bees he was introduced to a commercial beekeeper and po...

As Ben observes, there are so many ways in which beekeepers can no learn about the hobby: books, clubs, mentoring, and of course the internet. And a good source of online information for beekeepers in this country is the Facebook group ‘Backyard Beekeeping Australia’. Barry Roberts, the founder of the group, is the special guest on episode 99 of the Bees with Ben podcast. The group was founded in...

A ‘viral video’ may be described as a video that rapidly gains popularity through a process of sharing on the internet, through a variety of platforms such as social media, emails and websites like YouTube. But how does a video qualify as viral? The most basic measure is the total number of views, but the goalposts have changed over the years. In the early 2000s, a video could have been considered...

A ‘sommelier’ is typically associated with wine - a highly trained and knowledgeable professional normally only found in fine restaurants, who specialises in the service of wine, as well as pairing wine with food. It follows equally that the term could also refer to an expert in honey, trained to distinguish all the different nuances of flavour, texture and aroma. Melbourne-based Jessica Locarnini...

"Given the recent Varroa incident in NSW, Daz and Mandi, from Mandi's New Zealand Postcode Honey have kindly offered to help inform us with some sensible, down to earth advice.   With over 25 years experience in beekeeping, 15 years working with varroa and experience beekeeping in Australia, NZ and the USA, Daz and Mandi will give a short no nonsense chat and then we will open up the dis...

Way back in episode 16 of the Bees with Ben podcast, Ben introduced Richard Noel as a dear friend, a lovely English chap, an ex-paramedic, a landscape gardener, and now passionate beekeeper with a full-time bee-oriented business. A few years back, Ben was lucky enough to stay with Richard for a week at his home in Corseul, a town in Brittany, northwest France, and during this period Ben was able t...

Kris Fricke is our featured guest on episode 94 of the Bees with Ben podcast. Kris became a professional apiarist in 2005 and has kept bees in both California and Australia - at one time maintaining more than 500 hives. He has also worked with bees on projects in various parts of the African continent, amongst other destinations. In 2015, Kris founded Bee Aid International after attending a confer...

After a break for a couple of weeks, Bee’s with Ben is back with episode 93 of the podcast. In the interim, Ben attended the Australian Bee Congress in Sydney. This was just the fourth event of its kind, despite the inaugural one being held way back in 1972, but bee enthusiasts will only have to wait four years for the next congress, and Ben encourages anyone with an interest to take part. There w...

Our guest for episode 92 of the Bees with Ben podcast is Carmel from ‘CMG Honeybee’. Carmel hails from Melbourne’s west and had a varied career before turning her passion for bees into a business. Originally from Kangaroo Island in South Australia, where she grew up on eighty acres and was always surrounded by wildlife and the bush, Carmel moved to Queensland after completing high school to study...

This episode we continue our chat with Ben Moore all about bees. Ben actually hosts his own podcast https://www.bensbees.com.au/category/podcasts/ and literally lives and breathes everything bee related. This episode is the second installment of a series of episodes Ben and I will produce all about stinging insects. So we will touch on social wasps, solitary wasps, our native bees and of cour...

For episode 90 of the Bees with Ben podcast, we are heading to the tropics to catch up with Maurie Damon. Maurie has been keeping bees for decades in the Cairns region and remembers as a twelve-year-old being intoxicated with the intense flavour of honey from a nest of native bees. Maurie tells Ben that one of the main differences about beekeeping in the tropics is that hives must be placed on sta...

This week’s podcast is something quite different. Bees with Ben episode 86 consists of a candid chat with commercial beekeeper Tommy Daniels, from Melbourne’s Yarra Valley. Candid because Tommy had no idea that he was being recorded, as Ben called him under the guise of merely having a friendly chat. Ben explains that sometimes beekeepers are quite reticent, and he wanted to make their conversatio...

The podcast series where we put the spotlight on the best in the pest business. Hear their stories, their successes, their failures, and ultimately what lead them to where they are today! Join Jay Turner as he interviews some of the most inspirational pest managers in the Australian Pest Management Industry. Check it Out! https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/pestie-profiles/id1586241937

HELLO, NAME IS SIMON MCEVEDY I'M THE FATHER OF TWO GIRLS I'M INFANTRY BY TRADE & NURSE BY PROFESSION I'M ALSO A VETERAN WHO HAS FINALLY FOUND A HOBBY @ THE RIPE OLD AGE 49 AND IM ALSO KNOWN AS A NEWBEE BEE KEEEPER I HAVE NAMED BOTH OF THE HIVES ONE IS A CONBINATION OF MY DAUGHTERS NAMES ELLE & LEAH AND JOYBELL IS NAMED AFTER MY MOTHER AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE BEEN A LITTLE CREATIVE WITH THE...

Episode 86 of the Bees with Ben podcast features a young, up-and-coming beekeeper, Stephanie Parsons. Ben met Stephanie a few weeks back when he was asked to talk at Geelong Beekeeping Club and was impressed by her obvious enthusiasm, upbeat personality and love of beekeeping. Steph is living proof that beekeeping can become a rewarding profession for young people - and particularly young women -...

Episode 85 of the Bees with Ben podcast is co-hosted by Dr Anna Carrucan, a second-generation beekeeper and botanist, and the driving force behind Buukaar Waaruung boutique apiary and artisan honey. Also along for the ride (but taking something of a back seat on this occasion) is Simon Mildren from The Hive Buddy, a website dedicated to bees and beekeepers. In this podcast, Ben and Anna discuss th...

The 4th Australian Bee Congress: Celebrating Honey Bees at the Heart of a Healthy Australia. Registration is now open for the 4th Australian Bee Congress, to be held at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney from 8-11 June 2022. Proudly hosted by the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, this year’s congress is particularly auspicious, as it coincides with the 200th anniversary of the successful introduction...

Ben likens his special guest for episode 84 of the Bees with Ben podcast to ‘The Jackal’ - everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him! As well as being hard to track down, and something of a character, Joe Horner has developed a reputation amongst Australian beekeepers that approaches legendary status. In particular, the Joe Horner line of queen bees are considered by many to be secon...

In episode 83 of the Bees with Ben podcast, Ben chats with Sarah Calleja of Randox Food Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Randox Laboratories. With over 1,300 employees and offices in more than 145 countries, Randox is a world leader within the in vitro diagnostics industry, committed to innovative diagnostic solutions for hospitals, a wide variety of laboratory applications, and food testing. Their vi...

Episode 82 of the Bees with Ben podcast focusses on the transition from hobbyist to full-time commercial beekeeper, with the aid of Ben’s special guest, Matthew Petersen from Dividing Creek Farm. Matt says he grew up on a dairy farm with a large orchard, and his dad always had five or six hives, so he was bitten by the bee bug very early in life. However, Matt’s father passed away when he was stil...

This one is bit of a bonus/extra podcast episode.  I did a presentation at the Geelong Beekeepers Club 18/2/22 https://geelongbeekeepersclub.org.au/