Coastal Nectar

Positive post for the day, recently myself and some friends made a short film about beekeeping, surfing and the impact of climate change on pollinators. Showcasing the beautiful landscapes of the Surfcoast of Victoria

We didn’t expect it to go very far, and were very surprised to hear the film had won some awards at some local and international film festivals.

There will be screening at the upcoming Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.
(20th of July @ Cinema Nova)

It was a pretty funny scene trying to surf in my full beekeeping suit, I wouldn’t recommend giving it a go. The veil mesh gets covered in water and you can’t see anything in front of you 😂😂

If anyone is interested in seeing the short film at the festival, I would ‘bee’ happy to share the event below

https://www.cinemanova.com.au/films/mdff-shorts-session-4

Cheers
Thomas

Upcoming library event in Western Australia, BUZZING BEE TOUR

BUZZING WORLD OF BEES & HONEY 🐝

We are so excited to be having Beekeeper Tom of Coastal Nectar join us on 23 Jan 2025 for a unique honey tasting and beeswax candle making experience. He will be teaching us about the gentle artform of beekeeping and why bees are important in our ecosystem.

This free interactive and educational workshop is bound to book up quickly so make sure you register! https://worldofbees.eventbrite.com.au

!!!!! BIG ANNOUNCEMENT !!!!!

Coastal Nectar is going on TOUR! Presenting workshops and school bee incursions to remote communities throughout Northern Territory & Western Australia.

If you happen to know of any teachers in the following locations or regions nearby , please share this post or contact us directly .nectar

NORTHERN TERRITORY
~ Alice Springs
~ Tennant Creek
~ Katherine
~ Darwin

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
~ Kununurra
~ Broome
~ Exmouth
~ Geraldton
~ Perth
~ Fremantle
~ Margaret River
~ Albany
~ Esperance

We’re super excited for this adventure and special opportunity, which should take us through the red centre and across the Kimberley. Into the whale shark & blue whale migration of the Ningaloo Reef & down past the flowering grass trees of the south west corner.

See you on the road legends 🐝
Beekeeper Tom

p.s did you spot the blue banded bee in the poster?

Just finished off a great Summer School Holidays of Buzzing Bee Programs.

28 schools booked in these holidays , with a few even in QLD. These were the biggest holidays we’ve been apart of with just over 725 students attending. 😅

Students have all gone home with some fun new bee facts and extra appreciation of our humble pollinators. 🌻🐝

Each student & family these holidays received a bee friendly native paper daisy seedling or a beeswax candle to take home. With an aim to continue curiosities and learning to help out the local pollinators in their backyard. 🌼🌼

Favourite Questions from the School Holidays!!
~ Are bees hairy?
~ Can bees get sick?
~ Are male bees lazy?
~ Do you like being a beekeeper?

I’ve completely lost my voice from all the excitement but looking forward to more programs starting Term 1 after some quiet days at the beach. ☀️☀️☀️

ANSWERS
- Yes bees are very hairy, they use their hairs to collect extra pollen. The native teddy bear bee has over 3 million hairs on its body

- Bees can get very sick, sadly there’s pests like varroa mite & diseases that can infect baby larvae.

- Haha Male Bees are a little lazy, they don’t pitch in with a lot of chores around the hive and are kicked out as soon as it gets a little cold.

- I love working with the bees, harvesting fresh honey & spending time outside. I’m very happy that I’m ‘beeing’ apart of your school holidays.

The Red Flowering Gum 🔴

If you live in Victoria, you might have begun to spot the fiery red flowers of this summer flowering eucalyptus.

This flower is a great source of nectar & pollen for local pollinators and often noisy rainbow lorikeets.

We highly recommend stopping to get a closer look at one of these trees to see how many different pollinators are enjoying their abundant blooms.

🐝

Limited Batch of Honey Restocked

Get in quick if your looking for a sweet local gift 🎄

🔸 (Torquay)
🔸 .deli (Torquay)
🔸 (Freshwater Creek)
🔸 (Geelong)
🔸 (Aireys Inlet)

Recently we hosted a very fun honey tasting & candle making workshop at the beautiful

The 2hr experience included a tasty selection of raw honey’s and a deep dive into the fascinating world of bees. The talk involved lots of hands on materials, discussions on native bees, impacts facing bees and a timeline on the current varroa mite infestation in Australia.

This is a new adult workshop we had been developing for a little while and it was so nice to see the room full of environmentally conscious honey addicts.

Looking forward to running more of these programs in 2024 🐝

Looking forward to hosting this honey tasting + candle making workshop later in the month

Who’s got their tickets to the .nectar Honey Tasting and Beeswax candle making workshop?! 🍯
Join us for a very sweet afternoon with the bee mastermind Thomas Earls who will give you an insight into the world of the great pollinators 🐝
Grab your tickets by jumping through the link in our bio ✨

We were busy BEES 🐝 at HQ when Tom from Coastal Nectar came to teach us all about Hive Happenings 🍯 It was an EPIC sneak peek 👀 into one of our AWESOME incursions for this Spring Holiday Program 🤩

We were BUZZING around the office learning all about bees and taking part in FUN activities like Spot the Queen Bee and beeswax candle making. We also had a very SPECIAL honey tasting and enjoyed some cute bee-themed cupcakes 😋

Bee Friendly Spring 🌿

Here are our recommendations for planting a bee friendly flower garden this spring.

🌱Sweet Alice
🌱Flowering Thyme
🌱Everlasting Paper Daisy (native)
🌱Billy Button (native)
🌱Nasturtiums

Planting these flowers and attracting bees into your garden is mutually beneficial. You’ll help diversify the food source (pollen and nectar) of your local + native pollinators, whilst giving an extra pollination boost to your backyard veggies and fruit trees.
🍓🍊🍋🍐🥒🥦🫑

Please make sure to avoid pesticides and let your garden go to seed / wild as much as you can.

Now taking school bee incursion bookings for Term 4🌻🐝

We visit your classroom for this unique experience as students step into the fascinating world of bees, discovering in a fun way why bees are important to our environment and the food we eat. 🍓🍊🍋🥒🥕

Now Taking Term 4 Bookings for Primary Schools throughout Melbourne, Geelong and Regional Victoria

TOPICS WE DISCOVER
~ Native Bees
~ Lifecycle of a honeybee
~ How bees create their honey
~ Pollination Powers & Connection to Food
~ The Role of the Queen Bee

Including hands on equipment, educational games, beeswax and honeycomb

Incursions are linked to the Australian curriculum (P - 6)

✨For a limited time, we’re offering a jar of our Coastal Nectar honey complimentary with each booking for your staffroom to enjoy ✨

Link in bio for more information, testimonials and to book an incursion ⬆️

Flowering Golden Wattle

A favourite winter flowering native, when the golden flowers bloom it’s always a sign that spring is not too far away & the coastal flowering tea tree 🌿

There are over 1000 different species of acacia / wattles native to Australia. They are found nearly all around the country and provide a very important & nutritious winter flower pollen for all our amazing bees & pollinators.