KEEPING a hive is not only a way of helping the environment but also a great conversation piece.
Duncan McLeod, a volunteer with Illawarra Bee Keepers, said many people in Sutherland Shire who had a hive on their property enjoyed showing them off to friends.
Association president Lamorna Osborne said keeping a hive improved garden yields and was a relaxing activity.
Ms Osborne said she enjoyed the intellectual challenge of bee-keeping and enjoyed sharing the knowledge of this activity.
Some of that knowledge was shared in the association's popular bee-keeping courses that had trained 240 people in four years.
After keeping bees for seven years as a hobby, Ms Osborne said she was still thrilled to wake up each morning to the idea of tending to hives.
Ms Osborne said Australian honey was the purest in the world and highly sought-after in international markets.
The use of pesticides was devastating bee colonies across the world, said Mr McLeod, and he could tell when someone in his neighbourhood used herbicides by the hundreds of dead bees near hives.
"The importance of bees in agriculture cannot be overstated," he said.
The next bee-keeping course will be held this Saturday at the Sutherland headquarters; beekeeperssutherland.org.au/course-calendar.html
