LAND OF HONEY Sofia Levin @sofiaklevin Daniel Palm is obsessed with beekeeping. The microbiologist runs a research and development laboratory as a day job, but to call beekeeping his hobby is a major understatement.
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etter known as Dan the Bee Man, Daniel has worked closely with the Wolf-Tasker family and Lake House, Daylesford, for about eight years.
Initially he taught the team beekeeping and supported their hives. When the family opened Dairy Flat Farm in 2020 – a 38-acre regenerative farm with a vegetable garden, vineyard, established olive grove, 350 heritage fruit trees and accommodation for up to 12 guests – he relocated the bees. Now Daniel runs beekeeping workshops in line with his motto, “beekeeping is for everyone.” They are open to
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the public and run from basic 1.5-hour sessions through to full-day intensives, but it’s Daniel’s enthusiasm that’s most contagious. “There’s a tap at the bottom of the extractor, and there’s this moment when you open that tap and see the honey pouring out – there’s something absolutely magical about that,” he says.
"Albert Einstein said that if we lost our bees, we'd be dead within four to five years. From an environmental perspective, they're essential," says Daniel. "Bees visit hundreds of thousands of flowers each day. A colony of bees flies roughly the equivalent of three times around the world to produce half a kilogram of honey and, in its lifetime, one bee will produce approximately onetwelfth of a teaspoon of honey."
People increasingly sign up for the workshops, not just for the honey but also to learn about the roles bees play in biodiversity and sustaining the food chain. About 30 per cent of our food relies directly on pollination, with bees the most efficient pollinators.
Daniel’s favourite question to ask workshop participants is how fresh honey tastes. Like wine, it has a front, middle and back palate with different characteristics (think butterscotch, floral, nutty, etc.). Also, just like wine, honey made in the same place changes slightly in
