'There is something about our forests that beckon us back: they have a fascination all their own. Eternal peace seems to dwell therein, and it is the one place from which the‘madding crowd’ is missing.' A.E. Lind, Minister of Lands and Forests Foreword to ‘Native Trees of Australia’ James Wales Audus 1952
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			NATURAL BEEKEEPING AUSTRALIA - ABOUT US Malfroy’s Gold and Natural Beekeeping Australia are pioneering, innovative small rural businesses delivering world class products and services with a focus on bee, environmental and community health. Our business is unique as we not only offer honey and bee products from our hives, but also supply hand-made Warré hives and teach intensive educational courses. We have become well known for adopting a ‘bee-friendly’ approach, and for managing our hives and business in a style that is quite removed from the conventional approach. As a result, our Wild Honey exceeds both organic and biodynamic standards and is highly sought after by some of Sydney's leading chefs. We also feel that our bees are happier and healthier being kept in a hive that mimics how they live in nature. We share our specialised knowledge of natural beekeeping with the public and with our beekeeping students and are often approached by the media and the food industry to speak on the subject at food related events. Over the past five years we’ve been thrilled to host aspiring natural beekeepers from around the world and watch as they kick-start the Natural Beekeeping movement in their own countries. Please see below detailed information on what sets Malfroy’s Gold and Natural Beekeeping Australia apart from other beekeeping operations.

	WHAT SETS MALFROY'S GOLD AND NATURAL BEEKEEPING AUSTRALIA APART
	Wild Honey
	- We sell honey produced exclusively by our own bees in our customised Warré hives - We are the only professional Warré beekeeping operation in Australia - Our honey is never blended, filtered or heated above bee colony temperature (35ºC) - Our honey is harvested from small, permanent apiaries situated in wilderness and woodland locations - Our honey exceeds both the Australian Organic Standard and the International Demeter (Biodynamic) Standard 0 for apiculture - Some of the honey varieties we produce cannot be found anywhere else in Australia or the world - Our honeys are genuine ‘terroir’ honeys - We provide in-depth information about how, where and why we produce honey. Information is provided on this 0 website and is included in our Natural Beekeeping courses, workshops, talks, and honey themed dinners.
	Warré Beekeeping
	- We use bee-friendly Warré hives instead of standard conventional Langstroth hives - We have promoted the use of this hive design since 2009 and modified it for Australian conditions - We are widely considered to be pioneers of Natural Beekeeping in Australia and have developed unique apicultural 0 0 0 0 techniques and philosophies - Our hives are populated with natural wild swarms from the Blue Mountains instead of intensively bred commercial bees - We let the bees build their own comb rather than giving bees artificial beeswax foundation or plastic combs - We allow the colony to swarm (reproduce) naturally and do not practice routine queen culling/replacement - We have never treated our bees, hiveware or stored equipment with chemicals - We have never fed our bees sugar syrup or pollen supplements
	Education
	We actively engage with the community by sharing our theoretical and practical knowledge about bees and beekeeping in a number of ways. Primarily, we offer intensive Natural Beekeeping courses, facilitated by Milkwood Permaculture since 2010. These courses have inspired a grass roots movement in bee-friendly apiculture in this country. Many of our past students have kindly sent us unsolicited testimonials about their experience during the course. We have also contributed to many articles on beekeeping and have given dozens of free talks around NSW about the plight of bees and the environment.					. Photo © Eric Tournerét
	Handmade Warré Hives
	Most beehives in Australia are made from imported monoculture plantation timber so we decided to bypass the high carbon footprint of these materials and source local, durable, salvaged timber for our beehives. These hand made hives are items of beauty and sustainability and are offered exclusively to students of our beekeeping courses. For more information, please visit here.					. Photo © Eric Tournerét
	Sustainability
	We take sustainability seriously and have attempted to develop a style of beekeeping and a small business model that is sustainable and ethical. By using the natural comb Warré hive, focusing on developing small, permanent apiary sites and manually pressing/straining the comb to produce honey, we have been able to greatly reduce the carbon footprint and machinery that is typically used in a modern commercial beekeeping operation. We use local timber for our hives, our bee shed is 100% solar powered, our honey is sold locally (more than 90% sold within a 200km range) and nearly all product packaging is made from wood, glass or cardboard. Any plastic is re-usable and recyclable. In addition, sustainable living is not just part of our business model, it is a way of life we have appreciated since we were born. Inspired by our upbringing and the work of farmer friends, we grow some of our own food, participate in the ‘barter/gift economy’ with organic farmers, contribute to the local food co-op and plant as many trees and shrubs on our property as possible.
	Who We Are
	Malfroy’s Gold and Natural Beekeeping Australia are owned and operated by Tim and Emma Malfroy. Tim is a world renowned, second-generation beekeeper who grew up on a large apiary in the foothills of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains of NSW. He has been practicing organic, biodynamic and Natural beekeeping since he started keeping his own bees in 2006. In 2008 he was the first beekeeper in Australia to build and trial a Warré hive and traveled with Emma to Apimondia in France 2009 to take part in the first conference session on Warré and top-bar beekeeping. Commonly regarded as the pioneer of Natural Beekeeping in Australia, he is one of only a handful of professional Warré/ Natural beekeepers in the world, managing hundreds of Warré hives and specialising in producing Wild Honeycomb. Tim also teaches his unique approach to apiculture to over 100 students a year in Australia through the Milkwood Permaculture Natural Beekeeping Courses. In addition, he has personally instructed aspiring professional beekeepers from around the world who have travelled to Australia specifically to learn his method. Emma grew up on a large property near Gloucester and the Barrington Tops in NSW. Her father was a forester, farmer and photographer and her mother’s family still operate a large grazing property in the Central Tablelands of NSW. Emma takes the majority of the photos featured on this site and used in our promotional materials. She also designs and builds the website, develops tracking and reporting systems tailored to our beekeeping and administrative needs, designs promotional material and product labels and manages the accounts and administration. Their work together has been featured in numerous publications, including Les Routes Des Miel, Organic Gardener, Smith Journal, Country Style, The Field Guide, Sprout Magazine and international apicultural journals. Their honey has won many awards and is used in some of the finest restaurants around Australia.					0 Tim and Emma Malfroy 0 0 Tim with Bulgarian Log Hive Apimondia, Montpelier France September 2009
	AFFILIATIONS & MEMBERSHIP
	Natural Beekeeping Australia maintains affiliations and membership with the following organisations.
	Bees for Development	A UK based charity working to promote sustainable beekeeping in developing countries: www.beesfordevelopment.org
	Biodynamic Agriculture Australia	Healing the planet through Agricultural Renewal - Biodynamic farming and gardening methods: www.biodynamics.net.au
	IBRA	The International Bee Research Association: www.ibra.org.uk
	NSW Apiarists Association	The official organisation for all beekeepers in NSW, Australia. www.theabk.com.au/service/new-south-wales-apiarists’-association-inc
	Slow Food Australia	An international not-for-profit organisation to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions, people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from etc: slowfoodaustralia.com.au
	HISTORY
	Ceremony Collage: please click image to enlarge
		0 30 August 2007, Government Gardens, Rotorua - Oruawhata Malfroy Fence
	0 The man featured on our Malfroy's Gold Honey label is the late Jean Michel Camille Malfroy (1839-97), a distinguished thermal engineer, gold miner, politician and inventor. Camille traveled from the Jura region in France to Australian & New Zealand during the 1800’s in search of gold, making Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand his home. In 2007, Tim Malfroy was given the honour of unveiling a statue of Camille, created by sculptor George Andrews, as part of the Rotorua ‘Art in Public Places’ project. The statue is located in the Government Gardens on Lake Rotorua and is part of an art fence that encloses the now dormant geysers Malfroy is synonymous with. The fence, designed by Jamie Pickernell, is a celebration of Malfroy's work and also commemorates the fissure the geysers stem from known as Oruawhata, which the Maori tribes used as a burial pit for their warriors.

	Postcard of Moulin Malfroy ‘Malfroy Mill’ in the Chateau Chalon visitor centre, Jura Region France. (The building still stands as a farmhouse on the Rue de Moulin near Brery, Jura department, France)
	ABN 79 921 638 711© MALFROY'S GOLD