Our guest for episode 92 of the Bees with Ben podcast is Carmel from ‘CMG Honeybee’. Carmel hails from Melbourne’s west and had a varied career before turning her passion for bees into a business. Originally from Kangaroo Island in South Australia, where she grew up on eighty acres and was always surrounded by wildlife and the bush, Carmel moved to Queensland after completing high school to study music. She worked as a professional musician in a marching band before studying hairdressing, and then moved down south when her then husband was offered a job in Melbourne more than thirty years ago.
Since then she has raised a family as a single mum, working first as a hairdresser and then in various capacities at Yarraville West Primary School, where she also ran the choir and a class in face painting! She supplemented her income with a second job as a security officer.
Carmel’s journey into beekeeping came about largely by accident in November 2012, when she discovered a swarm that had taken up residence in a wall cavity of her rented property. She was acutely aware of the problems caused overseas by Colony Collapse Disorder, and determined to save the bees, which her landlord wanted to poison. She had heard of a rather colourful character called Adrian who had host hives around Melbourne and used to ride a rickshaw around Footscray; Carmel was face painting at a festival when she learned that Adrian and some other beekeepers were in attendance, and met up with a lady named Angela Castella who by coincidence lived on the same estate and taught her how to catch swarms.
Covid was difficult for CMG, as Carmel lost half her business through the inability to conduct school talks and incursions. Cash flow is a real problem in the beekeeping industry and winter can be a struggle. However, Carmel has learnt the benefit of investing in herself, and is undertaking some business training which she believes will stand her in good stead. She also advocates regular exercise and a healthy diet, along with clear boundaries, and the segregation of working hours and personal time - creating a balance between work, rest and play.
Moving forward, Carmel says that she has a hive in a childcare centre that has produced some amazing and unexpected results in terms of wellbeing; she also wants to grow the mentoring side of her business, as well as explore the possibilities of apitherapy.
https://www.cmghoneybee.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/cmg_honeybee/