![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/03\/AcOTBV4A_03103.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Operating organically means keeping hives well away from intensive agriculture and chemical exposure, which in turn limits where they can work.<\/p>\n
“We avoid areas of industrial agriculture, and this directly shapes where we can responsibly place our hives,” Quick said.<\/p>\n
The pair are critical of large-scale commercial honey production, where extensive harvesting can require bees to be fed refined sugar to compensate for lost stores.<\/p>\n
For Quick and De Domahidy, raw honey is not meant to compete with cheaper “commodity honey”, but to sit apart from it.<\/p>\n
“Organic beekeeping works when the model shifts from volume to value,” De Domahidy said.<\/p>\n
“We are not selling kilograms, we are selling ecology, genetics, place, and trust.”<\/p>\n
They also challenge the idea that honey is simply a sweetener with little variation.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2026\/03\/cifW0GOw_06424.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
“Flavours can range from delicate and buttery to floral and deep, depending on which flowers the bees source the nectar from, and the time of year,” De Domahidy said.<\/p>\n
Despite growing interest in ethical food production, the economics of beekeeping remain difficult, particularly in a market where low-cost honey is widely expected.<\/p>\n
“Cheap honey is widely expected without recognising the ecological cost behind it,” Quick said.<\/p>\n
Environmental pressures are also mounting. Like many Australian beekeepers, Sunny Times has been impacted by the varroa mite, a parasite that spreads harmful viruses through bee colonies.<\/p>\n
“Bees are remarkably resilient when challenges occur one at a time, but when pressures arrive together, they struggle,” Quick said.<\/p>\n
Nutritional stress, chemical exposure and varroa-spread disease have combined to cause significant colony losses.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/03\/S15C2UHw_07794.jpeg\")