Beekeeping On A Farm Near You

Sunrise over the farmland.

September is peak bee breeding season and we have located our hives on Esperance farmland with the wonderful tagasaste, canola and capeweed. 

By the end of Autumn we were looking forward to the break in the season to take our hives to the farmland, where we know the pollen and honey sources are. We use this time to get our bees strong and to breed hundreds of Queen bees.

This is where we do all of our primary work on our stud lines, encompassing several trips to Rottnest Island for the Better Bees program.

At Mark and Kingsley Scott’s farm - Coomalbidgup.

Esperance Honey has been working with local farmer Ken Scholz for the last ten years or more, providing pollination services. The bees are normally brought in towards the start of winter to spend a few months on Ken’s canola and faba bean crops and the tagasaste.

This is an amazing blend of nutrients for fattening bee stocks, allowing the bees to build up their strength and honey stores after Autumn, while also creating some benefits for Ken. 

Ken has observed that the bees are helpful in increasing crop yields for the faba beans especially, and research shows that they may boost yields by as much as 25%. For canola, both quality and yield have been shown to benefit from pollination, with yield increases of as much as 46% observed. Ken says he loves having the bees there, buzzing about, and enjoys working with Kev, Jeremy and Tyler. 

Tagasaste.

It’s wonderful arriving at Ken and Judy’s place knowing they and their offsider Dan have our back. The trust and communication goes a long way to ensuring the safety of our loads of bees. We’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of farms in Cascade, Coomalbidgup, and Munglinup. Many thanks to all the farmers that we come into contact with each season. As we travel throughout the district we meet and build relationships with more farmers every year. We couldn’t do it without you.

Working with Esperance farmers on local farms is such a crucial part of our annual beekeeping program. This small window of time is the critical driving point to our success in the Summer. Come Summer the hives are strong; ready to take on the heat of the Goldfields - land of premium rare varietal honeys. 

A highlight of the year is locating these rare and unique varieties, to collect and bring back to share with our Esperance customers. Some of the favourites are Goldfields Blackbutt, Transcontinentalis, Merrit, Coral Gum (which is becoming very rare) and our blends such as Desert Mix and Mixed Floral. 

Massive thank you to all the farmers out there!

At Alistair Tucker's Farm - Munglinup Station.