The Wins Creek Apiary Click here for slideshow Wins Creek Honey and Beeswax

My interest in bees goes back almost 50 years, when as a small boy, my brother and I knocked down a swarm of bees. It was up in a very large cherry tree. I can remember us running for our lives, and me being stung hundreds of times, most notably on the soles of my feet. It was several days before I could walk again. Forty years later, my son James, of a similar age to me when I had my initiation, was also fascinated with bees. It was his interest that prompted us to get our first hive. We had moved out to the country and were looking for something we could raise on our rural block. Bees, it turns out, were ideally suited to this. From one hive we could produce more than enough honey for family and friends.

I retired early from CSIRO in 2005 and have been slowly developing our apiary. Our bees are moved around NSW from Cootamundra to the South Coast and up to the Snowy Mountains, producing honey from species such as yellow box, spotted gum, red stringybark, chestnut, lavender, and tea tree. We take pride in producing pure natural honey with minimal processing and without the use of chemicals.

Education has been a focus of Wins Creek Apiary, and you never really finish learning about bees. For the last four years, we have had an exhibit on beekeeping at the Murrumbateman Field Days. We work closely with the Beekeepers Association of the ACT in their Spring course on Backyard Beekeeping and with their exhibit at the Canberra Show. We also do presentations on beekeeping, honey and mead tasting for various events.

As part of our apiary consulting services, we can advise and assist beekeepers setting up commercial apiaries. We also offer workshop/tutorials on beekeeping.