Bee the Change

Bee amazed by exploring the world of natural beekeeping. Create bee habitats and build your own native bee and honeybee hive boxes.

Bees are integral to the future of our planet and plant species – you can bee the change to help them survive.

You’ll delve into and get up close into the hives of European honeybees, stingless native bees and native solitary bees. You’ll develop the confidence to work with bees in your home, including setting up hives, gently and confidently handling bees, and planting a bee-friendly garden.

Learn how to harvest and work with hive products, including raw honey and comb harvesting and extracting honey. You’ll also assemble both a native beehive and a single honey bee box to take home at the end of the course Explore cooking and fermenting with honey, making mead, purifying wax and making beeswax wraps.

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Course Info

Day One

Orientation and overview for the week, theory session on bees, life cycle, opening and inspection of honeybee hive. Theory – pests and diseases.

Day Two

Thorough inspection of a honeybee hive, extraction of honey, overview of different types of hives and constructions techniques – honeybee hive construction (this may flow onto day four)

Day Three

Native bee theory, native bee hive inspection and splitting, extraction of honey.

Day Four

Harvesting and working with hive products. Native bee hotel construction and stingless hive construction.

Day Five

Advanced beekeeping skills identified during the week by participants – queen rearing, splitting hives, winter/ spring box rotations, resource sharing.

No prior experience required

Your class has an extra cost of $380 – this cost includes:

  • Half suit and gloves
  • ‘The Australian Native Bee Book’ by Tim Heard
  • ‘Nature’s Gifts’ by Athol and Skaidra Craig
  • Hive products
  • Honey
  • Bee hotel materials
  • Flat packed stingless bee and honeybee hives for assembling during the course

The extra costs for this course are charged ‘at cost’ by the tutor.

Payment details will be provided on booking.

Working with bees is working with our environment – each day is based on weather forecasts, and parts may be interchanged.

Our week together will cover

  • Understanding the intimate life of a honeybee and native bee
  • Biology of the honeybee and native bees
  • The importance of natural comb
  • Getting set-up for beekeeping – buying bees, making hive boxes and equipment
  • Site and forage assessment
  • Forms required for keeping bees
  • Handling bees gently and confidently
  • Ensuring the ongoing health of your colony
  • Pests and diseases
  • Swarming
  • Raw honey and comb harvesting techniques
  • Products of the hive and harvesting techniques
  • Honey appreciation
  • Cooking and fermenting with honey
  • Working with hive products
  • Planting a bee-friendly garden
  • Situating beehives in urban areas – backyards & rooftops
  • Making a native bee hotel
  • Selected advanced beekeeping practices as identified by participants

Happpy Camper Reviews

This course was brilliant, so much detail and information was presented. The tutors Trudi and Steve are amazing people and have created a thorough course to inspire and inform us about holistic beekeeping.
Steven and Trudy were amazing. Incredibly fun and informative course.
Great tutor. Learnt so much. Very well paced.
Excellent course and tutors. Well paced and learned heaps.
The course was extremely interesting and the tutors Steve and Trudi were excellent. They had passion and knowledge of bee keeping. I would highly recommend this course.
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Steven Hayes, Trudi Hayes
Course Tutor

Steven Hayes, Trudi Hayes

Steven and Trudi Hayes are the creators of Little Star Bee Sanctuary. Their education program provides dynamic training for those new to beekeeping, those interested in bees and to the experienced beekeeper in sustainable practices and hive management strategies.