KIEREN SUNDERLAND - Central West NSW

I suppose I didn’t have much choice as to whether to get into bees or not. Not with Dad so into it (see John’s story). I remember my first sting, I would have only been about 5 or 6 years old – God it hurt and I cried. Of course I’m used to stings now except when they get you in certain parts. Dad found me sprawled on the ground one day after one got up my trousers and stung me you know where.

One of my favourite childhood memories is being out extracting honey with my grandfather. He actually got into keeping bees because of Dad. I was only very small at the time and he kept winking at me and slipping me bits of fresh honeycomb straight from the hive with honey dripping from it. It was beautiful! That’s what I want to capture with Australian Beekeepers Direct honey.

I haven’t always worked full-time with the bees. I’ve done stints in the army and in the IT industry in Sydney. But the office environment wasn’t for me. Dad and I work closely together and drive each other crazy sometimes but being out in the open working the bees beats a desk job any day. I don’t like the travelling part – we can do as many as 100,000kms a year in the truck moving hives around. I could do without that and some of the crazy hours we do, it is because we move bees at night. But I love that you’re always learning – after all this time the bees can still behave in ways you couldn’t predict. I’ve been doing it for over 18 years now on and off and full-time for the last six, and I still sometimes feel like I’m an apprentice, particularly compared to Dad. But he’s hopeless in the office!

I spent a year in the States working as a beekeeper. They have it much easier over there – nothing like the work we have to do because of our dry climate. Though they do have to move their bees down to Florida over winter to escape the snow. It was a great experience seeing how much we have in common as well as seeing the differences. Australian honey, though, tastes much better.

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