The bees over at Buukaar Waaruung Apiary, in their Manhattan of hives on the ‘middle lip’ between Lake Bullen Merri and Lake Gnotuk, were given an early Bees Day gift by nature: autumnal days of sunshine wrapped up in a wide ribbon of blue skies.
Anna Carrucan, owner and apiarist, is a conservationist, ecologist and botanist. She earned her doctorate for her research on the Myrtaceae family, which includes eucalypts, tea tree and bottle brush. Raised in Woodford near Warrnambool, Anna studied at Melbourne University, where she became an academic. After she had “done the Melbourne thing” Anna and her husband looked to move out of the city. The Western District’s volcanic plains drew her back, and eventually they bought land between Lakes Bullen Merri and Gnotuk on a ridge above Camperdown that’s called, in the local Djargurd Wurrung language, Buukaar Waaruung.
A hobbyist beekeeper, like her Dad, Anna worked in ecology and conservation, but changed career when the agency for whom she worked re-structured. A conversation she had with a colleague at the time had quite an impact on her. “He said to me. ‘You can go on with what you are doing but at this stage of your career try to think about what you really want.’ I was driving home when it struck me, It’s bees! I suddenly thought that I could tie it all together: my botany, my scientific knowledge and my beekeeping. So out came the marker pens and paper.”
Anna’s timing was fortuitous and she was swimming with the tide with the growing worldwide interest in bees and an awareness of the need to protect the pollinators. In addition, in 2015, the Flow Hive, an Australian invention, made beekeeping more accessible by directly extracting the honey from the hive just by lifting a lever. By no means replacing traditional hives across established apiaries, it has nonetheless, introduced beekeeping to many urban gardens as it eliminated lifting heavy, honey laden boxes.
When Anna put away her marker pens and paper she had four main elements to her new business:-
- BEE SWEET – The honey production
- BEE KEEP – Host-a-hive and mentoring and helping novice beekeepers
- BEE GREEN – Conservation and gardening to establish bee loving gardens.
- BEE SPOKE – Lots of fun here: Anna will host workshops on bees, organise honey tastings, give tips about bee friendly gardening and loads more.
In the Spring of 2018 Anna added to her already extensive range of bee loving/beekeeping services and registered for swarm patrol. Whenever and wherever possible it is always better environmentally to try and preserve our bees, so if you know that there is a bee patrol in your area, far better to pay for bee patrol than pest control. “We find the bees a new home and they can then continue on with their good work,” says Anna.
However, the easiest tip that Anna has for anyone wanting to help the bees with their role in our ecosystem is to plant some of the bees’ favourite comfort foods in their garden.
Top of the list is the Lamiaceae family — otherwise known as the mint family, so it has all the lovely perfume aromatics such as mint, basil, lavender, rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme and savoury.
Next, the Apiaceae family — the family of carrots. It has relations everywhere, and includes fennel (much loved by Anna’s bees), celery, parsnip, dill, lovage, chervil, coriander, cumin as well as many more, including a few toxic characters such as hemlock.
The Daisy family (Asteraceae) gets a look in too, with much loved flowers, such as asters, dahlias, sunflowers and zinnias but it also includes artichokes, lettuce and some herbs such as yarrow. Bees are also quite partial to aeoniums, those good sturdy succulents, and won’t turn down brassicas either.
Watching the bees at work in the garden, can be mesmerising, and can make the prospect of having a beehive in your garden very appealing. Where and how to start though? This is where B’n’Bee, the hosting of a hive, is a great half way mark. It’s like learning on the job, discovering little tips as to how to keep the bees in tip top shape and how to recognise signs of hive ill health and discovering what to do. Whether going down the traditional hive route or opting for one of the new Flow Hives, the basics of bee care and good hive health remain the same. Still interested? Your next step might be to either contact Anna for some tuition or mentoring or contact a local beekeeping club.
Buying honey directly from a beekeeper means you have a taste souvenir of the local region and the honey scold extracted, unlike mass produced honey which is heated. Buukaar Waaruung Boutique Apiary produces single origin honey, which means that each hive is harvested individually to preserve the unique characteristics of the different nectars gathered by each bee colony.
The aroma, flavour and texture of the honey reflects what the bees forage during the summer and autumn seasons. For example, honey harvested early in summer is mainly from meadow flora such as clover and daisies, and is characteristically light coloured, mild in flavour, and candies naturally to a rich caramel texture. Later in the season, when the eucalypts bloom, the nectar contributes to a honey with a stronger flavour, featuring toffee aromas and a warm, rich finish.
Buukaar Waaruung Honey is available from:-
The Courthouse, 179 Manifold Street, Camperdown.
Camperdown Well Nest, 162, Manifold Street, Camperdown.
Rise & Grind, 2, Booke Street, Camperdown.
Jo’s Pantry, Murray Street, Colac.
The Wooltrack Store, Lismore.
The Elephant Bridge Hotel, Darlington.
Grassroots Deli Cafe, Port Campbell.
It also features on the menu at Forage on the Foreshore.
Discover more about Buukaar Waaruung Honey on their website:-
Email: beekeeper@buukaarwaaruung.com.au