Bee in the Sedge Apiary

04/11/2025

Fresh spring honey from Blackmans bay, currently only 500g jars ($20). Halfway down Blowhole Rd in Blackmans bay at honey stand.

20/12/2024

Fresh cold filtered honey from Blackman's bay, honey stand half way down Blowhole Rd. $10 - 250g jars / $20 - 500g jars 🐝

04/05/2024

Fresh Tasmanian Manuka/Leatherwood from the southern Forest, limited harvest. Available at farm gate stand halfway down blowhole Rd, Blackmans bay. 250g jars - $10 🍯

23/11/2023

New season's honey from Blackmans bay - Honey stand in blowhole rd

20/03/2022

Fresh Leatherwood/Manuka blend (from lake Gordon) and this seasons Wildflower (from Birchs bay). Single batch, hand extracted, raw Tasmanian honey. Available at farm gate half way down blowhole rd, Blackmans bay.

22/11/2021

New seasons spring blossom from Blackmans bay, at farm gate in Blowhole rd

16/08/2021

Freshly filtered raw unheated Leatherwood just added to the farm gate stand at Blowhole rd, Blackmans bay. Other varieties include 'Native wildflower' and 'Manuka with bushflower'

10/07/2021

We have been told that logging is essential for jobs in Tasmania, if so, what about beekeeping jobs that rely on NOT logging leatherwood ?, the flow on jobs in agriculture that rely on bee pollination services ?, etc. (yes, the list goes on !) - jobs jobs jobs !

2140 signatures are still needed! We want to save pristine leatherwood forest in Tasmania from logging.

28/06/2021

From Sustainable Beekeeping

A FLOW HIVE CONFESSION.
When Flow Hive launched in 2015 I was amazed and fascinated with the invention thinking, WOW this is going to be so good for the bees! Some beautiful people, many of them good friends, have a Flow Hive.
During my five years working at Save the Bees Australia, I rescued bee colonies and helped mentor and set people up with bees for their Flow Hive’s. It is a hive that has made me feel uncomfortable and frustrated over the years.

In the cold climate of Victoria, it was a rare occasion to have one work effectively and easily. So many issues including the bees taking a long time to move up to the plastic frames even when the bottom box has no room left and honey harvest taking hours to eventually drip out.
Jelly bush honey is impossible to get out, sometimes they leak, and bees drown, frames warp and break, it’s common for ants to infiltrate areas of the frames and many have trouble finding freezer space to store the bulky frames over winter. One of the main ways bee communicate is through vibrations through the beeswax to one another and I have concerns that the heavy plastic frames may be effecting their language.

At my last bee-centric beekeeping workshop half the attendees already owned a Flow or were interested in owning one. In my heart it was not a hive I resonated with, but in fear that I would offend someone I remained positive, thinking “this hive has generated a lot of interest in bees, the more backyard beekeepers the less power giant honey corporations have in exploiting bees and controlling the industry and honey price.”
Regretfully a month ago I bought a Flow Hive super with the intention of adding it to a Langstroth hive. To me I saw it as a 'learning tool' for those who are interested to see how it works who come to my once yearly Introduction to Bee Guardianship workshop. Then show them many other beautiful natural alternatives and hope they resonate with a more bee centred design.
REALITY AND EGO CHECK
A colony if bees is one being, the hive is the skin, honey is blood, and the wax is the body's cellular structure. I think it’s unfair for humans to deprive bees their ability to create, instead inflicting their petrochemical waste on an insect that has been living in harmony with the earth for millions of years. There are over 70,000 plastic hives out there now that will eventually add to the already devastating plastic waste issue we have. In my opinion the hive is terrible for bees. It is in no way bee-centric, it is a human-centric hive.
I am aware this will be confrontational and get a lot of hate from the many faithful Flow Hive fans, but for the bees I am compelled to tell people to avoid the Flow Hive. More fuel to my fire is their recent partnership with the Wheen Foundation, an agricultural charity that takes no stand against bee killing chemicals such as Glyphosate and Neonicotinoids. They support large scale monoculture farming.
Flow Hive is green washing this partnership by calling it their 'Bee friendly farming program' After seeing endless promotions from paid influencers only praising the positive and withholding the negative. Enough is enough, F the flow, go natural, go plastic FREE!

Flow hive have an unlimited advertising budget. Please help to spread the word and SHARE this post 👍

21/02/2021

New seasons summer blossom from Blackmans bay

19/02/2021

Latest news - Bee at the apiary pond (Photo by George Bond)

14/01/2021

Leatherwood currently flowering near the Apiary at Mount Picton, southern Tasmania