Urban Hum

02/02/2026

As a Churchill Fellow, part of the journey includes encouraging others to apply. I am thrilled to be presenting my point of view tomorrow Wednesday 4th of February at 12pm. You will hear from me and from the Trust on what to expect when applying for a Churchill Fellowship. It really is a once in a lifetime, life changing experience.

There are no limits on ideas. What matters is curiosity, purpose, and a clear intention to apply what you learn.

Visit
https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/become-a-fellow/

08/11/2025

🐝 Honey Bees: Living with Varroa 🐝

Join Permaculture Hunter at Urban Hum, Cardiff Heights for an afternoon exploring how we can live and thrive with Varroa.

🌿 Hear insights from Churchill Fellow Kelly Lees
🌸 Tour Urban Hum’s Tiny Forest & pollinator garden
🥗 Stay for a shared meal and connect with fellow bee lovers

📅 Sunday 16 Nov, 2:30–5:30pm
🎟️ $10 or free for members – bookings essential
👉 events.humanitix.com/honey-bees-living-with-varroa

Come learn, share and support our buzzing friends! 🐝💛

Perfect for new or returning beekeepers, this session shares practical, permaculture-based insights and includes a tour of our one-acre oasis with a Tiny Forest

20/06/2025

One week down in Korea, it’s been busy. Checking queen mating success at 6am, conducting experiments to understand how to find making new friends, finding great uses for golden teapots and learning how the South Koreans treat for and tropilaelaps. Always things to learn so amazing to have this opportunity of the sponsored Saskia B**r

15/06/2025

Oh Thailand, I am not ready to say goodbye! It’s been such a wild time.

Five species of honeybees, countless stingless bees.

Generous researchers and students including Dr Bomb, Dr T**d, Pan, Wan, Eaf, View, Oh, Aiy, Buun and Ghung.

Welcoming beekeepers like Mr Don, Dumrong and Poinoun the Apis cerana bee keepers and the Director and head beekeeper at The Agricultural Technology Promotion Centre for Economic Insects TharaThip and Payom.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wisdom, knowledge sharing and welcome.

Here I come South Korea!

11/06/2025

One of the key reasons for my is too learn about this little nasty, Tropilaelaps mites.

This mite has many mysteries and although lots of researchers, citizen scientists and beekeepers around the world now have their steely eyed gazes firmly focused on Tropi there is much we still don’t know.

So with that in mind, part of my investigation here is to try to understand how Tropi gets into a beehive. In collaboration with the team from Chiang Mai University - Meliponini and Apini Research Lab (MARL) we are collecting entrance bees.

First we collected and alcohol washed foragers. After that I figured out what time the local drones flew out and returned from their potential mating flights.

Once we had that info we fitted pollen traps just before the time they commence returning to the hives to exclude and catch the drones. Pollen traps allow foragers to pass through but not the larger boys, making it easy to pluck them from the front. Results aren’t in yet but hopefully we may collect some good data!

06/06/2025

My time in Thailand is flying by. I have been hanging out with the research crew from the Meliponini and Apini Research Laboratory (MARL) from Chiang Mai University headed by Dr Bajaree Chuttong.

The team are looking at, among many other things, novel protein supplements for bees, both stingless and honey bees.

Because they have long pollen and nectar dearth’s they are searching for supplements that can be made by beekeepers using everyday, easily available ingredients. The key protein ingredients being tested right now are- beef, pork and chicken!

My mind was blown when I heard this, the clear winner at this stage for both stingless and honey bees appears to be chicken. The supplements also contain pollen and soy flour. A paper will be published once the study is finished.

26/05/2025

Yesterday was my first full day in Thailand in beautiful Chiang Mai. Thailand is the second leg of my Saskia B**r Churchill Fellowship.

Thailand is the native home to 4 of the world’s 10 honey bee species. And I saw 3 of the 4 in 1 square metre of weeds!

Giant honey bees- Apis dorsata (the original host of Tropilaelaps mites)

Red Dwarf honey bees- Apis florea

Asian honey bee- Apis cerana

I also saw a beautiful solitary native bee, which I am yet to identify. And of course the ubiquitous European honeybee is also here. The insect life is incredible it’s a bug nerds heaven.

16/05/2025

I have finally come to grips with my new macro lens, without a tripod it’s been a challenge!

Check out the size difference between and mites. These photos are super zoomed in, varroa is about 1.5-2mm wide and 1-1.8mm long. In comparison tropi is about 0.5mm wide and 1mm long. With the naked eye, well my naked eyes anyway tropi look like a speck of dust!

Understanding how to detect and identify Tropilaelaps mites is a big part of my fellowship journey. 2 weeks in and I feel confident I can now positively ID them, after looking at 100’s of them in washes, brood cells and on sticky mats I’ve got my eye in.

10/05/2025

The fruit here is amazing, so delicious and flavourful. The tropical landscape grows a huge variety of produce.

Some will be familiar like the Tamarillo and Guava. Others like the second image is new to me, it’s called Sweetfruit and looks a lot like a passionfruit but it tastes subtlety like all the tropical fruit flavours at once with a hint of floral perfume. My description does not in any way do this delight justice.

08/05/2025

Yesterday I got up close and personal with mites for the first time.

Nothing prepared me for the size of them. Despite knowing they were small, despite seeing photos, videos and size comparisons with they are minuscule and so, so fast. Varroa is a giant lumbering bus and tropi is a Ferrari.

After a day spent in the field in hives Dr Cooper Schouten and I spent hours pulling out bee pupae and sampling mites, I could barely see straight afterwards. For comparison the photos show mites next to a 20 cent coin and at the tip of a hive tool!