Hive of activity for buzzing family beesiness

THE ‘save the bees’ movement inspired Molly and Trish Wellington to start beekeeping, and the hives on their Mannibadar property launched a super sweet enterprise.

Well Honey, stocked at Linton Larder, comes from the Wellingtons’ bees. Their rural range is extracted from two hives in the Shire, and is influenced by seasonal growth.

“Every time we do an extraction, it will taste slightly different depending on what’ flowering nearby at the time,” Mrs Wellington said.

“Bees can travel up to five kilometres for their nectar and pollen, and the next rural batch we do will be based on canola stock that’s out at the moment.

“Our rural honey is a much deeper colour and flavour to an urban range we also do. It’s very sweet. It will be interesting to see what the flavour is this time.”

Mrs Wellington and her 26-year-old daughter, Molly, became passionate apiarists after they watched a documentary together.

“It talked about how important bees are for our survival on the planet, and Molly said, ‘how about we do this together?’

“Whenever we extracted, we got a tonne of honey. We had 30 jars, and that’s why we decided to start selling it,” Mrs Wellington said.

“My 16-year-old, Matilda is already helping. I feel like the apprentice. She’s looking to the future, hoping to make this a family tradition for us to pass down.”

Buying their Mannibadar farm two years ago, there were always lots of bees on site, including a hive in an old tree stump, but they also brought in their own which they purchased near Creswick.

Their latest project has been trying to get the stump hive out.

“Last week Molly spent all day trying to do it. You’ve got to catch the queen to catch the hive.

“We had an old hive in the back of our house, which we think moved over to the tree too,” Mrs Wellington said.

They have a goal to produce manuka honey in the coming years.

“It’s busy being a beekeeper, and we’ve got big prospects for our honey and bees. The beekeeping association told us no one ever stops at one hive. It’s true.”

Well Honey’s urban range is produced from hives in Melbourne.