A few months ago there was an informal gathering of natural beekeepers in Sydney, organised via the Natural beekeeping (Australia & NZ) mailing list.

A bunch of us trooped up to Hornsby, to spend a very enjoyable afternoon chatting about our experiences as Warré beekeepers. We also discussed native beeps, harvested some honey, ate some delicious home-baked bread, and sampled some mead (strong stuff!).

Sydney

Another informal gathering has been organised for Sydney, details as follows:

Darlo Village Hotel
Tuesday 3 June 2014 at 6.30 pm

All are welcome!

Melbourne

Warwick Bone has also indicated that there’s  a natural neekeeping group in Melbourne, a Special Interest Group under the auspices of Permaculture Victoria.

They meet the third Monday of the month, at Borderland Cooperative, 2 Minona St, Hawthorn, 7PM – 9PM.

A growing movement

There’s now a real sense of energy in the natural beekeeping community, and this will only grow as we continue to gather together. Natural beekeeping is now a regular topic of discussion in the (otherwise-conventional) Sydney Bee Club, and I can only imagine this is happening in other bee clubs.

Diversity breeds resilience, so it’s very encouraging to see so many different types of beekeeping now being practiced, often side-by-side.

To keep in the loop on all this, join the Natural beekeeping mailing list.