Hive Talkin'

Getting geared up for the sweet life

... with a name like Ted Flower, the president of the Hunter Valley Amateur Beekeepers' Association ... was the natural choice.

I have very few recollections of her early childhood but one sticks out like a sore thumb, or a sore foot as it were. I was a wee three-year-old bidding farewell to my parents who were taking a rare holiday - I suspect to retrieve some sanity after having five kids and holding down almost as many jobs to feed them.

I stood on a bee and the bee didn't agree, the sorry saga no doubt more excruciating for those charged with my sedation.

And while I have, for all these years, harboured a quiet fear of bees, I have openly declared my love for their handiwork as I've shovelled down a honey-soaked crumpet or regaled the children with some classic A.A. Milne.

So, as I approached my 40th birthday, I resolved to smoke out my childhood demons while focusing on a new sustainability mantra: moderate effort, maximum yield.

Yes, I got me some honey bees.

I'd been wanting to write a column on backyard beekeeping for the Herald and knew that with a name like Ted Flower, the president of the Amateur Beekeepers' Association of NSW Hunter Valley Branch at the time was the natural choice to introduce me to the increasingly popular pastime.

Ted, a grandfather and plasterer by trade, has been keeping bees on his small block at Mayfield for more than 20 years and loves honey on his porridge.

Seconds into our initial chat, he'd sold me on the subject.

Within a week, he'd phoned me to say he had collected a swarm, thought I sounded interested and was wondering if I wanted a hive. Now.

My husband was in the background smiling and I figured that was the green light. Turns out he was just smiling. He had no idea what I'd agreed to.

So Ted came over with the swarm in a hive - about 18 months ago now - and has been my beekeeping mentor ever since.

Ted, who can open 20 hives in a mask, shorts and t-shirt without receiving any painful reminders about the benefits of wearing protective clothing, says "quick and quiet" is the best modus operandi when checking the hives.

It seems sweet-toothed city slickers have been labouring under a misapprehension that beekeeping is only for country folk boasting high pain thresholds and wide-open spaces.

Ted assured me that a greater diversity of flora in the city equates to more honey in a concentrated area and that has certainly proven to be the case.

Our first ever honey harvest was a hoot.

Despite my children's and the neighbours' kids' efforts that night to devour, imbibe, smother themselves in honey to the very last drop, we still managed to fill 20 jars, with beautiful, clear, pale golden perfection.

It was a hit at school news. My daughter took a jar and 20-odd plastic spoons and gave her year 1 class the lowdown including an instruction that there'd be no double dipping.

It was also popular, with the garden club ladies, at work humptea, and with appreciative friends and family.

While our first few collections were bounteous, we were so excited about our honey we gave it all away.

We are due to harvest in the next week and we won't make the same mistake this time - we'll make sure we keep some for us too.

The honey tastes amazing, and tastes and looks different depending on the seasons and what is flowering. (Our first lot of honey was very light, possibly from water gums(tristaniopsis laurina) and brush box (Lophostemon confertus) which flower in our area mainly as street trees plus all the urban flora (urban honey). The next lot of honey came from the paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia) which is a dark amber.

If you start with a small colony of around 10,000 bees, a hive will build to around 60,000 bees and you can expect to bottle around 35 kilograms of honey in the first year alone.

(The Hunter Valley amateur beekeepers club has an apiary of 20 hives at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens at Heatherbrae and meets there on the fourth Sunday of each month, bar December. The $80 annual membership fee buys you a wealth of knowledge and valuable hands-on experience. They sell queens and nucleus hives to get you started. Everything else you need you can get from Pender Beekeeping Supplies at Cardiff. You can even shop online by visiting their impressive website at www.penders.net.au, and they invite beginners with questions to fire away via email.)

Note: The benefits of beekeeping extend far beyond honey. Backyard beekeepers witness dramatic improvements in their gardens' yields: more and larger fruits, flowers and vegetables.

Interested to read more about bees, check out Tricia's blog: http://littleecofootprints.typepad.com/little_eco_footprints/garden/