Urban beekeeping

First published on 14 Mar 2012. Updated on 11 Apr 2012.

It’s about to rain and the bees on the rooftop at the Wine Library in Paddington are agitated. It’s Bees Gone Wild. They are flitting in and out of the hive, and even braving the bar’s upstairs offices. Everything has that ripe bee smell – like "bees fucking" someone once commented – and there’s a low-but-persistent buzzing permeating the air. Bee enthusiast Doug Purdie, AKA the Beevangelist, is outside charming the bees. He murmurs comfort to them ("c'mon girls, calm down, it's just Doug here") picking the occasional one up and giving it a very gentle pat. He gets stung all the time, and reckons "you don’t forget the pain, you just get used to it".

Purdie started keeping bees about two years ago when he realised they were under threat overseas. “People [in Australia] were blissfully unaware of the problem so I started getting involved to try and educate and maintain the genetic diversity of bees.” Thus, the Beevangelist is born. Purdie not only maintains a blog on his exploits but also sets up and supplies local cafés and restaurants with beehives. “The first establishment that came to us was actually Swissotel. They were looking to do things that were eco-related and bees were one of them.”

 

Swissotel may have been the first to get involved, but they’re certainly not alone in getting this thing off the ground. Cornersmith café in Marrickville is currently keeping bees on its rooftop, Kitchen by Mike in Rosebery is planning to set up hives just as soon as their kitchen garden is finished, Petty Cash in Marrickville has just set up hives and Wine Library has had them for just over a year.

 

“The best thing is the neighbourhood feel of it,” says Wine Library’s co-owner and chef James Hird. “I’ve really enjoyed that something’s being made on the veranda that’s of this place. People talk about terroir with wine a lot, but [this honey] seriously has a signature. What I’m excited about seeing is whether over the year we can see the difference in the honey, in terms of what’s flowering and what’s going on.”

 

Keeping bees in an affluent area like Paddington has its advantages – there are plenty of flowers in neighbouring gardens and Centennial Park is just across the way. Still, Jodie Goldsworthy, co-owner and co-director of Beechworth Honey, worries it’s not sustainable. She says hives need to be moved around for variety. “It is a natural thing for a hive to die out if there is not enough nectar and pollen.” Purdie disagrees. “With the city bees, there are different and exotic things flowering all year round.”  

 

Before you get too excited and make grand plans to start making and selling urban honey from your backyard, it might be worth noting that it’s not all that profitable. One bee produces a quarter of a teaspoon of honey during their 28-35 day lifespan, which is probably huge for a bee, but pretty meagre when you think about spreading it on toast. “It’s not profitable, but it’s not about making money,” says Purdie.

 

“It’ll be really good for people, eating honey from their own neighbourhood,” says Hird. “Like most things we do, money’s not really the objective. I just really love them being up there – I sit out there heaps. If you’re stressing out you can literally watch them for half an hour. It’s better than staring at the washing machine.”

Try Doug Purdie’s honey at the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square every Saturday or buy it online at Food Connect 

Try some local honey at the source…

Cornersmith
314 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville	This new Marrickville café is smack bang in the middle of the suburb’s best Vietnamese restaurants, offering up great coffee and selling – you guessed it – very local honey.
Wine Library
18 Oxford St,Woollahra	Try their honey on fresh figs while sitting at the bar drinking some crazy-ass wines.
Swissotel
Level 8, 68 Market St, Sydney	Who could possibly guess this inner city hotel plays host to a roof garden complete with three beehives?
Petty Cash
68 Victoria Rd, Marrickville	This sweet little café across the road from the pool is staffed by more hot tattooed women folk than your average café. And they have bees.
Bees coming soon… Kitchen by Mike
85 Dunning Ave, Rosebery	Time Out’s favourite place to eat brekkie at the moment is also about to be a bee-haven, complete with kitchen garden.

Want to start keeping bees? You’ll need the following:

The history of the beehive hairdo

In 1960, Modern Beauty Salon Magazine (now known as Modern Salon) announced that they were searching for a new look to feature in the magazine’s February issue. The team approached Margaret Vinci Heldt of Elmhurst, Illinois, who had a salon on Chicago's posh Michigan Avenue, and she devised what would later be referred to as the ‘beehive’. Inspired by the fez, with its slight bump, Heldt created the revolutionary hairstyle in her living room. Kiana Sarabia-Strayhorn