Next up at Ballarat Green Drinks, Scott Denno of Backyard Beekeeping Ballarat, will be talking about Beekeeping and bee-friendly gardens. Join us for drinks/dinner on Thursday June 15, 6:30-8pm at Bunch of Grapes Hotel, 401 Pleasant St South, Ballarat – great talks followed by audience Q&A.
Amanda Collins and Scott Denno have been beekeeping for the past 10 years after being gifted a honey bee hive from a work colleague. A fortuitous meeting with a retired local commercial beekeeper ignited a passion and appetite for learning that they have never felt before.
Within a few years and while undertaking formal beekeeper training and education with the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agriculture Victoria, Marcus Oldham College and Gordon Institute of TAFE the couple increased their hive numbers from their one gifted hive to 50 hives and now manage around 80 honey bee hives in an urban apiary site in suburban Ballarat.
Both Amanda and Scott are foundation members of Ballarat Regional Beekeepers in 2015 and are the founders of social enterprise HiveMind Community Apiary, a community apiary teaching people with lived experiences of mental illness how to care for honey bees hives through the successful annual A Season of Beekeeping Program.