Bees With Ben

Goldfields Honey, Bee and Pollination Services Pty Ltd and its sister company Goldfield Honey Australia are producers and packers of 100% pure Australian Honey. The founder Grant Lockwood (1958 – 2017) started beekeeping as an apprentice in 1974 and remained in the industry until his death in 2017. Together with his wife Vicki, he established Goldfields Honey in 2000 and had a natural gift fo...

PODCAST EPISODE 33: Weronika Wasiak, beekeeper, Miód Wasiaka, Krobia, Poland “Bees are making things which, for me, are an absolute miracle of nature. This is the constant fascination of their lives.” This statement belongs to my Polish friend and former colleague Weronika Wasiak; it shows the inspiration she takes from bees and her deep passion for beekeeping – one that spans a century. Based in...

PODCAST EPISODE 32: Summer Catch Up with Ben Moore (Me!), Ben’s Bees, Australia The hangover of months of isolation and curfews and mask wearing and zooming still hasn’t subsided for me. Like any decent hangover, it’s lingering – part headache, part fuzzy recollection, part low mood. Like many extroverts with a need for other people and chats and yarning and faces and real interaction, I am STILL...

PODCAST EPISODE 31: Daniel Curless,  Curless Aussie Apiaries, Lockyer Valley, Queensland. In a remarkable initiation into beekeeping, Queensland-based beekeeper Daniel Curless obtained his first ever hives in an unusual circumstance: “My first hives were found abandoned in a dry creek bed, it took a while to clean them up and get them ready to move. When we were ready to move them, we had two...

PODCAST EPISODE 30: Peter Gatehouse from Hill Top Hives, South Gippsland, Australia It’s quite uncanny, but there are many remarkable stories of transformation that centre on bees. It seems to me that bees often enter someone’s life and a change in perspective, even career, ensues that is fulfilling in a way that person needed quite deeply. These stories – which are told quite often – give me goos...

PODCAST EPISODE 29: Ian Steppler, co-owner of Steppler Farms and founder of 'A Canadian Beekeeper's Blog’ YouTube channel, Canada In the past year, I have grown to appreciate the internet as a tool of knowledge, of skill sharing, of learning and fun. During Melbourne’s strict lockdown, this infinite ether of information became completely vital to the community – a place where we worked, learnt, an...

PODCAST EPISODE 28: Sanjay Kafle from Mad Honey, Nepal As we farewell what has been a completely life-changing year, I am starting to dream again. These final days of 2020 have me envisioning new horizons and perspectives – they remind me of the travel we are yearned and are yearning for and the different ways we have found to find peace and escape in this strange and isolating time. For that reas...

PODCAST EPISODE 27: Michael Haddad from Sparkke Natural Brewery, Adelaide. As the summer starts to slowly warm up in Melbourne, and Christmas bells are ringing after a very long year of challenges, people across Australia (and the world) are finding ways to celebrate the things that really matter in life. There have been many dark moments in 2020, and we understand the fight is not over yet. Howev...

PODCAST EPISODE 26: Adrian O’Hagan from The Bearded Bee, Melbourne When I first came across natural beekeeping, I knew I had found my place in the world. I love technology (when used for good and not evil) and new ways of adapting and doing things; I also love small business and being fortunate enough to make a living via and as a result of bees; however, I believe that beekeeping should be done a...

PODCAST EPISODE 25: Steve Donohue, beekeeper and author of Interviews with Beekeepers Times flies when your… a beekeeper! So, it’s been a MASSIVE two months since we last spoke (or I spoke with beekeepers, and you tuned in), but the BEES WITH BEN beekeeping podcast is back! And I am so very happy about it – I have missed you all so much! As some of you know, I am becoming an author! My first book...

PODCAST EPISODE 24: Ben the Busy Bee says “hi” and “goodbye” – but only for six weeks! For beekeepers, the annual cycle of work and rest is a rollercoaster. As bees rug up and hibernate for the winter, beekeepers wait around, twiddling their thumbs, dreaming of bees, painting bee boxes, and drinking long cups of tea doused in their favourite honey. To be honest, the cooler months of the year can b...

PODCAST EPISODE 23: Sarah Hamilton, Native Beekeeper and founder of BeeYourself, Brisbane, Australia These days the honeybee is well-known and well-loved. Of course, I completely understand why – these little darlings pollinate 70% of the world’s food crops, so what’s not to love! In comparison, native bees don’t get nearly as much press as they deserve. Hugely diverse across the globe and each wi...

PODCAST EPISODE 22: Matthew Waltner-Toews, Unspun Honey, Mount Gambier, Australia I love imperfections in nature, especially honey. As a natural beekeeper, I take my hat off to businesses that privilege the wellbeing of the bee over all else. That’s what makes Unspun Honey one of my favourite ventures. Located in the Mount Gambier region, Unspun Honey is owned and operated by Matthew Waltner-Toews...

PODCAST EPISODE 21: Cedar Anderson, Flow Hive co-inventor, Byron Bay, Australia While the recording of this episode might be a little crackly in parts, I feel it represents something of the character of my next guest. Inventor, entrepreneur, bee lover, family man, paraglider, Flow Hive co-creator – Cedar Anderson is a truly down-to-earth bloke with truly down-to-earth (yet highly ambitious) passio...

PODCAST EPISODE 20: Ryan Moloney (AKA “Toadfish” from Neighbours), Beach Box Honey, Australia If there is a piece of fine art that sums up the experience of the Aussie suburbs like no other, it’s Neighbours. And while the soap opera has a swag of lovable and hateable and completely relatable cast members, I feel very positive and assured in saying that there is one character that viewers, probably...

PODCAST EPISODE 19: Cody Adams, beekeeper, founder of Bee Scientific and Bee Barrell Hive creator, Utah, USA Beehives: for beekeepers, these are not just boxes of different shapes and sizes, they are the residences of our best friends, the bees. And, as we love our bees dearly, we want to make homes for them that are functional, architecturally sound, ergonomic, suit their lifestyle, respond to th...

PODCAST EPISODE 18: Emily Forrest Mikschi from Embodybee, wandering the East Coast of Australia There is a quote from Eve Byers’ short documentary, BEEing Kept, where Emily Forrest Mikschi says “I don’t really think you could call me a beekeeper because I feel as though it’s the bees that are keeping me.” What a thought, one to stir over slowly, one that conjures the complexity of the relationship...

PODCAST EPISODE 17: Jill and John Richards from Nature’s Gold, Brisbane, Australia I love a good team. There is a very beautiful saying by Mother Theresa that reads, "None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." I have been doing a lot of thinking about what it means to work as a team, no matter how sm...

PODCAST EPISODE 16: Richard Noel, beekeeper, business owner, and all-round interesting chap, Brittany, France For me, one of the best things about beekeeping is the way it connects to other things. Beekeeping isn’t just an activity in raising colonies and collecting honey – bees connect us to the environment, showing us how small we are and simultaneously how important it is that we change our way...

PODCAST EPISODE 15: Gladstone Solomon, beekeeper and Bees for Development trustee, Tobago Some people have wise and particularly beautiful souls. It is not something that can be quantified; it is just a feeling that you get when you meet them, a kind of radiance that exudes from their being. I have seen this in bee-people – as generally, humans that love bees are good sorts – they have a connectio...

PODCAST EPISODE 14: Michael Kiem from Denmar Apiaries, Cloyna, Queensland Due to the vastness of Australia, much business happens via road and air. This extends to apiary and beekeeping, and in one great example, I source my queen bees from a wonderful keeper and breeder, Michael Kiem from Denmar Apiaries, way up in Cloyna, Queensland. Michael runs his apiary with his wife Crystal and is one of th...

PODCAST EPISODE 13: Adam Barassi, Tax Accountant from Barassi and Co. Chartered Accountants and Future Beekeeper As we are all starting to learn that we need to slow down and smell the roses … but THEN we learn that in order for flowers (like roses) and other plants to grow and be smelt, pollination has to occur. Which brings us to bees, of course! Bees are the world’s number one, most-loved polli...

PODCAST EPISODE 12: Stephen Heatley, owner of Kangaroo Island Ligurian Queen Bees, Kangaroo Island Artists are known to be eccentric people, but from my experience, some of the best and most interesting beekeepers are similarly colourful characters. To be so obsessed with one small, yet mighty, creature takes a certain personality, and a little wackiness and a lot of passion seem to be quite usual...

PODCAST EPISODE 11: Anita Long, Founder of the Tasmanian Junior Beekeeping Group, Tasmania Dedicated, passionate, friendly, outgoing, patient, encouraging, warm, a wealth of knowledge – my praise for Tassie beekeeper and educator extraordinaire Anita Long is endless. I met Anita three years ago, and she has never ceased to amaze me with her vision and commitment. Anita is the founder of the Tasman...

PODCAST EPISODE 10: Lindsay Bourke of Australian Honey Products, Tasmania I love Tasmania. Over the past few years, I have been lucky to pop across Bass Strait relatively regularly to hang out with my bee-mates in Tassie – young and older, this beekeeping community has a great appreciation and understanding of the island’s unique and precious environment. It sure is a remarkable place, one of the...