The Secret Life of Canberra Honey

Posted on 7 May, 2015

With his mohawk, fresh young face and easy charm Mitchell is not someone you look at and think ‘beekeeper’. But he is a fourth generation beekeeper who is incredibly passionate about his work. Mitchell’s family has been in the business of bees for 100 years as Honey Delight, commercial beekeepers in northern NSW, and after identifying a need for more bees throughout Canberra the family created Canberra Urban Honey.

“I see myself the caretaker of the bees. As long as I keep them and the hive as healthy as possible, that’s my main aim. Any honey I get as a result of this, is kind of an extra,” says Mitchell.

Mitchell and his family have an original approach to beekeeping. Traditional commercial beekeepers are often accused of pushing the bees to produce honey unnaturally, controlling the development of the hive to create more honey and ultimately making the bees unhealthy. Mitchell’s family take an approach that looks to the future and ensure the longevity and sustainability of their hives. Rather than think he can control his bees, Mitchell considers himself the keeper of the bees. He’s there to look after them and support the natural development of the hive, not force them to produce honey for him. Mitchell’s focus is on the sustainability of his hives and he considers the honey produced a happy by-product.

When selling Honey Delight at market stalls throughout Canberra in 2013, Mitchell found that his customers were beginning to complain about a lack of pollination. The more complaints Mitchell heard, the more concerned he became about a potential pollination crisis in Canberra. A lack of pollination would ultimately result in reduced production from backyard vegetable gardens, naturally occurring and backyard flowers ceasing to thrive and feral bee hives dying out completely. Having identified the problem, Mitchell felt that he and his family were the perfect people to fix it.

Mitchell created Canberra Urban Honey, the first agricultural crowd funded project in Australia, to address this problem and alleviate any potential pollination crisis. Canberra Urban Honey works with people who are willing to host bee hives in their backyards. Mitchell calls his volunteers ‘hive hosts’. The process begins with a backyard assessment as the hives need a spot that has morning sun and late afternoon shade. For an annual fee of $500 which covers the cost for Canberra Urban Honey to look after the hives, the hosts are guaranteed honey and more importantly, the natural pollination of their garden and surrounding area that comes with bees. Mitchell’s short term goal is to have his hives healthy and sustainable, and pollinating 25% of Canberra. Ultimately, Mitchell would like to have one hive within 5 kilometres of every house is Canberra, guaranteeing the sustainability of our natural environment.

“[Canberra Urban Honey] Australia’s first agricultural crowdfunding project, meaning we got funds from the community through the internet. We raised $2,000 and that covered the cost of bringing in five hives,” Mitchell explains.

Canberra Urban Honey has been widely embraced in the Canberra community and Mitchell is currently working with 15 hive hosts who are hosting 40 hives between them. Mitchell also has some rooftop hives, including at the top of Hotel Realm in Barton. As a leader in their industry, Hotel Realm was keen to give back to the Canberra community and chose to support Canberra Urban Honey as one way to do so. Mitchell has a large number of people interested in hosting more hives and is currently working on ways to fulfil the demand while making sure he has the ability to cater to the needs of the increased number of hives.

Mitchell’s main focus is being able to support his hives as urban beekeeping is harder than the commercial, rural beekeeping he began his professional experience in. Urban beekeeping is more cramped and space needs to be utilised in smarter, more efficient ways that will also benefit the hives. Canberra Urban Honey takes an innovative approach by clustering their hives together. This creates a micro aviary which serves 5 kilometres in every direction from their location. It is a more efficient set up for the bees to cluster the hives and makes it easier for Mitchell to take care of them if they are closer together. Canberra Urban Honey is aiming to implement this set up throughout Canberra.

“My main goal is to cover Canberra in terms of guarantees pollination,” says Mitchell. “That means a hive within three kilometres of everything.”

“We realised the problem, and the need for bees in Canberra was worse than we expected. And we knew we were the perfect people to find the solution.”

Hive hosts receive all the honey they want from the hives hosted and Mitchell sells the excess honey produced to support the business. But Mitchell considers the honey to be a by-product of the process, rather than the focus. Mitchell’s passion is to help make Canberra a thriving, sustainable city and he focuses on the benefits of pollination and environmental sustainability.

As a way of further contributing to the development of the urban beekeeping community, Mitchel is developing an initiative called the Collective. This Canberra Urban Honey project aims to support beekeeping hobbyists in Canberra. If a hobbyist is looking after their hives well, then they will collect more honey than they expect as healthy bees produce well. Through the Collective, Mitchell offers to bulk buy the excess honey from the hobbyists and package and sell it to further support the business.

Canberra Urban Honey also has a focus on education and as Vice-President of the ACT Beekeepers Association Mitchell has worked hard to increase awareness of sustainability issues in Canberra. With the support of the association, Mitchell is hosting educational courses, including an Advanced Bee Keeping course, which is open to anyone who is interested.

With only three years in operation, Canberra Urban Honey has already produced award-winning honey and Mitchell is a regular speaker on all things bees and honey throughout Canberra. Find him on the Canberra Urban Honey Facebook page to see where his next market stall will be. You can also email him at hive@CanberraUrbanHoney.com. Mitchell is always happy to have a chat and share his knowledge; you will find his passion for bees is catching.

Photographs by Richard Tuffin of @AtRtPhotos