Family Business located in inland southern New South Wales (between Canberra and Goulburn), in Bywong
100% Australian Owned and operated
B Qual Certification underway
240+ production hives
Based in Southern New South Wales
Our Goal: Quality Bees over the long term
Our Ethics: Honest, reliable and thorough.
Our Bees
Italian Bees – a mix of our queens or bought in queens
Our own locally raised ‘Snowgum’ Italian Queens
Open mated commercial Queens from large scale Australian Queen Breeders
Gentle bees – we don’t use gloves when working our hives so don’t keep grumpy bees
Our Beekeepers
Lead Beekeeper – Jeff Matsen with almost 40 years experience, started his own hives in 1983 tropical North Queensland. With experience keeping bees in hot a d cold clothes mates, coastal and inland. He holds a Diploma of Agriculture, including Beekeeping aspects.
Other Helpers – Family and Friends
Giving back – most of us have benefitted from some form of mentoring or other free assistance in life, and we try to return the favour when we can. Jeff offers his time for free to:
ACT Sentinels – Part of the Australia wide ‘National Bee Pest and Surviellance Program (NBPSP). Jeff lead, as an u set up of the ACT element of the NBPSP, and continues as one of the ACT Sentinels volunteer team.
National response to 2016 varroa (on Asian Honeybees) incursion in Townsville – Jeff was one of the Bee Industry volunteers in the early stages of the National response.
Canberra Bee Club – Jeff lead the establishment of the Club’s first hives in 2016, focused on showcasing a range of different hive types to help members better understand the hive choices available to them. This included Langstroth (plastic, wooden & foam), Warre and Kenyan Topbar hive designs. Also, Jeff lead the planning and conduct of the Club’s first Canberra Beekeeping Field Day, to help offer locals access to a range of Beekeeping experts in a user friendly setting.
Free Honeybee swarm removal. We understand that swarms pose a range of challenges when they appear in a non-beekeepers property. So we offer a free swarm removal service in our region to help reduce some of the potential negative impacts of Honeybees to the general public.
Lions Club. Jeff has joined a local Lions Club Branch to help out with their fundraising efforts.
