Adrian the Bee Man.

19/02/2026

2026 Victorian Junior Landcare and Biodiversity Grants | Junior Landcare
Applications close: 27 March
Funding: $5,000
Details: encourage children and young people to get involved, value, and actively care for Victoria’s biodiversity and natural environment.
Example projects:
Biodiversity focused education activities: educating, involving, and engaging young people in valuing and actively caring for Victoria’s biodiversity and natural environment.
Incursions and Excursions focused on Victoria’s biodiversity
Incursions by local experts on wildlife conservation
Excursions to wildlife sanctuaries or parks to learn about local biodiversity
Educational resources, technology and equipment to support biodiversity education and citizen science activities;
Habitat creation, restoration or enhancement for Victoria’s native plants and animals
Traditional Owner or First Nations Welcome to Country or Smoking Ceremonies as part of the funded project
Biodiversity focused on-ground projects: engaging young people to improve biodiversity through creating, enhancing, or restoring habitat for Victoria’s native plants and animals
Nature Guardians: Hands-on Biodiversity Learning
Creating a Mural from a Walk on the Wildside
Excursions to Melton Botanic Garden and a planting project
Planting for pollinators
https://juniorlandcare.org.au/grant/2026-victorian-junior-landcare-and-biodiversity-grants

18/09/2025

"Some beekeepers feed their bees sugar water, and the bees turn that in to honey." Well, maybe. MOST beekeepers who feed their bees are just trying to keep their hives going until the spring flow.
"Don't buy supermarket honey, you don't know what's in it." Yes, you do know what is in it. In Australia and I believe in the US, anything labelled as "honey" or "pure honey" has to be honey. If you are unsure, check the label. (If it says agave honey, or vegan honey, or honey spread, or anything else that modifies the word honey (you know, adjectives. You learned about those in primary school) then it isn't honey)
Spreading other narratives is potentially harmful to beekeepers, because even the big honey companies are supplied by beekeepers.
BUY LOCAL WHEN YOU CAN, AND ALWAYS CHECK THAT YOU ARE BUYING AUSTRALIAN.
And never, never, never ever feed honey to bees if it isn't 100% guaranteed to be from their hives, because that will spread disease

24/10/2024

Other pollinators

Flowers can be pollinated in a multitude of ways, and now a series of studies is showing just how big a role rats and mice play when it comes to Australian flora.

26/08/2023

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lK1tGmPN6h0&si=KwscgRyehNmU6sMM

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01/02/2023

Couch cut out.
Going well. . .so fa

17/01/2023

https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/101858778?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D =From%20%251%24s&aoh=16739339538769&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2Frural%2F2023-01-17%2Fwomen-beekeepers-world-record-set-sister-hives-australia%2F101858778

Women beekeepers 'astonished' by global response to world record attemptABC Rural / By Jennifer Nichols and Fiona BreenPosted 6h ago6 hours agoMon 16 Jan 2023 at 11:33pm, updated 32m ago32 minutes agoTue 17 Jan 2023 at 5:01am Brittany Fairfield's atmospheric entry to the world record challenge from....

23/08/2022

It is coming up to that time of year again, and my usual yearly message is getting more important each and every year, specially now with varroa mite incursions, and a small jump in the number of beekeepers after CoVid
SWARM SEASON!
Bees are going to start swarming in Victoria sometime in the next six weeks (and earlier in warmer areas, or areas that have had a good season.)
And every time swarm season starts, someone will ask somewhere in social media, what they should do about a swarm that has turned up in their front yard.
And, just about every time, you will get someone with a helpful (note: sarcasm) comment, “Don’t worry about it, they will move on soon enough.”
Please. Please, no, no, no, and furthermore, NO!
If a swarm turns up in your garden, call a beekeeper, and if you don’t know how to find a beekeeper, try swarm report Melbourne on Facebook, or swarmpatrol.com
“Bees are important, we should just let them be.”
No. Bees are important, we should look after them.
Here are the reasons you DO NOT just let them move on:
1. If they move on, they might make their home in the wall or roof of someone’s house, or in their garden shed, and be a problem (a lot of beekeepers will pick up a swarm free, or at very low cost to the homeowner. Once it moves into a wall or roof, the cost of dealing with it is guaranteed to go up)
2. They might move into a tree hollow, which means they might displace native, hollow nesting animals, such as possums, birds, and native bees
3. If you have watched the news at all this year, you have possibly seen something about the varroa mite. Australia has had the healthiest bees in the world, due to being isolated, and having excellent quarantine. This has meant we were the last country in the world without varroa mite, (yes, even New Zealand got it before us) and the country least affected by colony collapse. If bees are free to move into unmanaged spaces, such as house cavities, trees, pots, empty boxes etc, they will not be watched to ensure they aren’t harboring varroa mites, hive beetles, wax moth, American foul brood disease, european foul brood, nosema, chalk brood. . . and any other parasites, pests or diseases. People keep their cats inside to save indigenous fauna, let’s manage bees for the same reasons.
4. If people who care “just let them move on” they may end up swarming to somewhere where someone DOESN’T care, and they will get sprayed, or they might end up in a school or childcare centre

24/07/2022

Took advantage to the 20ish degrees in the back garden today to do a quick check on the bees in the yard.
I have wanted to do this for a few weeks, because one hive really seemed to be struggling.
Opened it up, they had almost no stores, so I added some 1:1 sugar syrup to one of their empty frames.
People will say not to do this, because the bees will store it as honey. For hive with the number of bees in this hive, and the lack of stores, the chance that they will store enough of this, to still be there in spring, is VERY small

04/12/2021

Australians are swarming to amateur beekeeping, with the latest figures showing the sector valued at $173.5 million per year. But there's more to the hobby than simply buying bees.

22/11/2021

So, I just saw a post elsewhere saying that beekeepers should be charging for swarm collection.
I am not going to "should" and I am not going to "shouldn't" on this one. I am going to give my side though.
I started beekeeping a little over 30 years ago (fine, so probably 36ish) and I knew Maybe 10 other beekeepers, but only four beekeeping families. If there was a swarm, we were the local beekeepers that got called, if someone didn't spray them, or call an exterminator.
That was great, and fun, and fine, and if I was in the situation of being the ONLY beekeeper around my area, I would be run off my feet, and would probably HAVE TO charge people simply because of the time it would take up (I could have picked up four swarms today.)
But beekeeping has had an EXPLOSION in popularity. There are urban beekeepers every few blocks, multiple keepers in many suburbs.
And with this explosion, there are many inexperienced beekeepers, and possibly some careless beekeepers, and even beekeepers with eh attitude of "If you see a swarm, leave them alone, they will move on."
Which gives GREAT potential for people to see urban beekeepers as a problem, and a nuisance, and undesirable, to the point that local councils may impose greater regulations on beekeeping.
Because of this, I do free swarm collection (unless I have to travel. . . see the map below for why I don't have to travel) AS A PR STUNT!!
This is not like "Hey, if our band plays my party fr free, I will get you heaps of exposure!" This is NOT that. There aren't bands roaming the streets, making pests of themselves, making it so bad that bands, generally get a bad name because of the few "bad" bands out there. So, if you want a musician, PAY THEM PROPERLY.
But I will personally, never charge for local swarm capture/pick up/retrieval.
I want beekeeping to remain popular, and I don't want us to be seen as a problem.
And, to reiterate, this is me, this is my philosophy, this is how I think about this situation.
If other beekeepers want to charge for the service, they should absolutely do so. Keeping bees isn't free, there are costs to be met.
And those costs are much higher if a hive needs to be removed from a wall, so I charge for THAT service (and remind people to manage their hives so we don't get swarms that end up as nuisance hives)

05/10/2021

I just saw a post in one of the multitude of beekeeping groups I am in that almost broke my heart. I am such a sucker for bees.
Someone had a hive, and they got a "pack" of bees to populate the hive. But what they got was a replacement queen and attendant workers. I don't know what information they exchanged with the seller, but this is one of the reasons I keep telling people: before getting ANY livestock, read, watch, learn, and get a mentor.
Please. learn as much as you can before you start.
I started reading about beekeeping at about 8 years old (also, cows, goats, sheep, snakes, kangaroos, yabbies. . . .) and actually started keeping bees at about 15 after a few years of asking my parents if I could. Even then, my father and I worked with a mentor for the next few years, AND talked to another beekeeper at every possible chance.

05/09/2021

Bee swarm season is upon us. I have already had one swarm call.
If you see a swarm or feral hive, contact swarmpatrol.com, and a local beekeeper will get back to you. (A message goes out to up to three beekeepers).
I keep seeing messages in beekeeping groups saying things like "leave them alone, they will most likely move on."
Please don't. Honey bees are an introduced species in Australia, and if they are left un-managed, they may take up tree hollows that native animals would use, or they may set up in the wall or roof of someone's house.
Please, please, if you see a swarm, contact a beekeeper, or use the swarm patrol reporting system. We need the bees, but we don't want them to be a nuisance