Rosebery Honey is a home honey business run by Rosebery residents Fiona and Michael. It’s a small operation – the couple have beehives in their backyard and sell their honey from a stand out the front of their house. The business was born when a swarm of bees took up residence in their possum box, inspiring them to become urban beekeepers.

‘The gift back from the bees is that they’re doing all the pollination.’

‘[In the early days,] I would go down and there might be 1000 bees. Wearing no protection whatsoever, I would scoop a handful of bees off the side. That was the good old days because there was no fear. Then I got stung,’ Michael says.

From there, Michael started learning the craft from local beekeepers. According to Michael and Fiona, there are a lot of beekeepers in Rosebery, mainly in the Greek community, who keep bees and produce honey for their own use or to share with their families.

‘Bees are quite resilient.’

Urban honey has a different character to bush or rural honey. Michael and Fiona call their variety ‘polyfloral honey’ because bees that make it forage on a diversity of plants – Michael estimates there are up to 10000 varieties within the bees’ 5km flight radius. Urban bees are also more productive because of this abundance of flora.

Rosebery Honey works on an honesty box system: people take a jar of honey and leave the money in the mailbox. It’s a familiar concept for Fiona, who grew up in Tamworth where shopping at roadside stalls with honesty boxes was part of her family’s weekly routine. It’s a system that builds trust within the community – Michael recounts how one week their box out front was a dollar short and the next week it was a dollar over; someone had come back to put in what they owed.

‘You give the opportunity for people to do the right thing and they do,’ he says.

Sometimes Michael and Fiona get thank you cards in the letter box – one note reads: The honey is incredible with flowers, flowering trees and herbs thanks mainly to the immigrants who have loved their gardens – in the last batch you could taste roses. Many people have also told them how the honey has helped their allergies.

‘They love lavender; they like the colour purple.’

Michael appreciates that Rosebery Honey connects them with the local community. He and Fiona chat more with neighbours about what is happening in the area. Neighbours also ask their advice on what to plant for the bees.
And the appeal of local honey is growing. Fiona gives presentations at the local primary school and seniors centres. She and Michael have also collaborated with local businesses like Gelato Messina and a homeware brand Maison Balzac.

‘It’s hardly a money-making venture. It’s a labour of love [and] a healthy hobby we do together.’