Meet your trainers - NSW

Bruce started his beekeeping journey began at school, nearly 70 years ago! The wealth of knowledge he brings is a gold mine. Not only has Bruce been awarded the Order of Australia for his services to the beekeeping industry, but his work guiding beekeepers across NSW through amateur clubs has influenced a generation of beekeepers.

Bruce reminds us that Varroa is a worldwide parasite that can be managed. He’s visited many countries to see first-hand what strategies do and don’t work, and has spoken at several international beekeeping conferences.

My entry into beekeeping began 20 years ago when I had the opportunity to work side by side helping an aging beekeeper who needed a spare pair of hands. What a way to learn!

Moving forward to today, like many, my hives were euthanized due to varroa. As an industry, we’re now incentivized to get a grip on the knowledge and strategies to help us replace our bees, and I appreciate all the networking at club level that has given me the confidence to start replacing hives and managing varroa into the future. As a trainer with a science background, I look forward to helping the beekeeping community to take steps forward and move past the anxiety that the early days of varroa brought.

Doug became a beekeeper around 15 years ago after selling a neighbour’s honey at his local farmers’ market as a community fundraiser. Realising all he knew about bees was that honey was great on crumpets, he was horrified to learn about the issues bees face worldwide. It inspired him to do more research, and then to do his bit to educate people about the importance of pollinators - and to spread the word about what a pickle we’d be in without them.

He started The Urban Beehive with business partner Vicky Brown in 2010 and their first hive was installed later that year at a hotel in Sydney’s CBD. The business now has over 100 hives across Sydney from the Royal Botanic Gardens to the airport, producing bespoke honey for all sorts of clients, from corner cafes and five-star restaurants to airlines. They also run courses in Centennial parklands and operates the only city-based beekeeping shop.

Doug is the author of two books: Backyard Bees, a best-selling beginner’s guide to beekeeping published in 2014; and his most recent book, The Bee Friendly Garden, which aims to encourage all Australians to provide for our beneficial insects by planting flowering plants and using less insecticides in their garden. He has served as president of the NSW Amateur beekeepers association and is a founding member of the Sydney city branch, and was the beekeeping consultant on the recent ABC catalyst program The Great Australian Bee Challenge.

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in bees. While growing up I never thought bees could be a career, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Today, through working on research projects and beekeeping in Australia and the Pacific Islands, the more I learn, the more my interest in bees continues to grow.

Although uncertainty is being felt across the beekeeping sector, I like to remember that, just like a beehive is a super organism, so are we in the sense that we can now all play our part to succeed as an industry and as a community.

Starting out as a plant breeder, Garth has long understood the role of bees in our landscape. He became a commercial keeper and Queen bee rearer almost a decade ago, and is known for his interest in genetics and breeding for resistance for the purpose of ideally reducing our reliance on chemical interventions. Today, as a contractor, Australia’s largest bee keeper is one of his many clients, and his diverse experience makes him a fantastic addition to the training team.

In late June, 2022, when I heard that varroa had been detected at the Port of Newcastle, my heart sank. For someone with a passion for bees and beekeeping, I knew right away this was not good news. My lifelong passion for bees and beekeeping, and the associated skills, have been passed down to me by my father. In fact, my formative years were spent working in the family business, learning as much as I could about bees, and how to run a successful commercial enterprise. This is how I saw my future, as a commercial beekeeper, but my parents had other ideas.

Instead, I pursued a Science Degree and Diploma of Education, followed by a full career teaching science (my other passion). While I was very lucky to be involved in a career that I loved, I still took every opportunity to work on the bees with my father.

In 2022 I took the opportunity to give back to an industry that had been very good to me and volunteered as a beekeeper on the Varroa Response. Which brings us here to where I am today, in front of you as a “beekeeping science teacher”.

The establishment of varroa in Australia has been a great disappointment for us all. In spite of lots of efforts across Australia here we all are. My hands-on experience with varroa includes being one of the volunteers in various efforts to keep varroa out: the 2016 varroa Jacobsoni incursion in Townsville, and helping set up varroa sentinel hives in Canberra in 2016. But in 2022 the Newcastle incursion would prove to be the one that got away. And now I am trying to help our hobby, our industry, learn to live with varroa. Others around the world did this and so can we.

I started bee keeping in the early 1980s in north Queensland and, like many others, later become a semi-commercial beekeeper - selling honey at a farmers' market is something many of us have done. In 2018 I became a commercial bee keeper focused on pollination and nucleus hive sales. Since the 2022 varroa outbreak, my focus is now on pollination, supplemented with off farm work (as many others are doing).

As a second generation beekeeper, I’ve now managed hives across 3 continents – first the Caribbean, then France, and now Australia where I call home. My experience in France is proving vital, as managing varroa was part of everyday life.

Like many, my small-scale commercial operation here on the central coast was euthanised as part of the early varroa response, and I too am now taking the steps to rebuild my hives.

I look forward to sharing my experiences from overseas and the knowledge currently being developed for the unique Australian conditions.

Sunny days, strong hives, and a honey flow is about as good as it gets. All the planning and hard work has been done to get your bees to this point – no two seasons are the same and every day in the hives is another day of learning. After more than 20 years the drive and the curiosity is stronger than ever, and the little ladies still surprise me every time. And let’s face it, there’s always a lot to learn, especially with our new challenges.

For me, there’s nothing better than sharing knowledge and stories with other beekeepers who have that same passion. Whether it’s my father with his 45 years experience, or a retired beekeeper in their 80’s, or someone in their first season, we’re all beekeepers and we’re all in it together.

My name is Lachlan Barker. I come from a farming and timber background, which sparked my interest in bees. I’ve been keeping bees for about 10 years now, diving into the world of beekeeping and learning the ropes along the way.

When on a walk when visiting Germany in 2005, Max noticed that hives dotted throughout the forest looked different to what he’d see in Australia; and so started his journey from 4 hives to 20 before the end of his first year as a hobbyist. Nearly 20 years on, Max has now completed a Cert III qualification, expanded his hives into a production enterprise, and won multiple awards at the Sydney Royal. His passion has now shifted to education, and his experience as a trainer for both recreational and commercial beekeepers is well known.

Due to the Varroa incursion, Max unfortunately lost all his hives, but through a new position with DPI NSW he was able to gain critical hands-on experience and knowledge of Varroa management. Happily, his apiaries are starting to be repopulated.

My obsession with bees and beekeeping began nearly 10 years ago and put me on a never-ending journey to learn all I can. The skills and knowledge I’ve gained from managing my own hives has been invaluable. So too is all I’ve learned through Tocal College’s Cert III qualification, and the Master Beekeeper qualification I’m currently completing through the University of Florida where I’ll soon be starting a new research project.

I’ve been honoured to have opportunities to share my experiences with beekeepers across NSW and Qld amateur clubs, and am passionate about improving confidence in hive management – especially when it comes to varroa.

Michael’s interest in bee keeping began as a child watching his father’s African Bee hives. However it wasn’t until a swarm landed landed in his Coffs Harbour backyard nearly 10 years ago, that his own journey really began. Today, as a notable queen breeder, he’s a passionate advocate for the industry – commercial and amateur. His passion for helping the sector led him to recently be part of the Varroa response team, and we’re delighted he’s now part of the Varroa management training team.

I started my beekeeping journey in Germany at the age of 16 when I was introduced to the president of our local bee club. I spent as much spare time as I could over that whole first season learning about bees. He had one of these beautiful European bee houses where you sit behind the hives and listen to the sound, and smell the hives intensely. He was a very good teacher, and I was grateful for all I learned.

Varroa became a problem not long after I had my first hives. I lost 18 hives in the early 90s due to a combination of varroa and a very long cold winter. That was it. Our toolbox of treatment at that time only had one option, which wasn’t enough.

Fast forward when I came to Australia in 2000, I thought I’d come to paradise! Not only because Australia is a fantastic country, but also because beekeeping was so easy without varroa.

The reality is that varroa is now here. However, the positive is that we now have a toolbox full of treatment options, and benefit from the experience of other countries.