Are Bees Pets? A Curious Question Worth Buzzing About

“Bees as pets?” What a question!

I’ve been invited to speak at an upcoming event celebrating all things fur, fluff and feathered - it is set to be a joyful community festival of pets in all their cuddly glory. 

And my topic? Bees.

I have just ten minutes to wow the audience, challenge a few assumptions, and leave people thinking differently about our buzzing friends. So let’s start where all good pet conversations begin… with my dogs.

Meet My Fur Children

I have two Australian Bulldogs, Gus and Tess. They come with us to most places, greet me like I’ve been gone for years (even if it’s only been ten minutes), and provide endless unconditional love, laughter, and companionship. I adore them - truly.

And I also adore my bees.

But not in quite the same way.

My Australian Bulldogs, Gus and Tess - I adore them!

So… Are Bees Pets?

My short answer is an unequivocal NO.

A pet is generally defined as an animal kept in the home for pleasure or companionship, rather than for work or food.  By that definition, bees simply don’t fit.  If anything, honey bees sit much closer to livestock - alongside cows, chickens, sheep, and pigs - than they do to cats or dogs.

When most people talk about bees, they’re really talking about honey bees (Apis mellifera): our superstar, superorganism pollinators that live in hives, make honey, and help produce so many of the foods we love.

Like all livestock - and yes, like pets too - bees require careful management. Beehives need regular inspections. Colonies naturally want to grow, thrive, and reproduce.  At some point, that means swarming, when the old queen leaves with around half the hive to start a new colony.

Keeping bees isn’t a spur of the moment decision. It requires time, responsibility, respect, and a lifetime of learning.

Bees require careful management

The Really Good News: You Don’t Need to Keep Bees to Help Them

Here’s where the story gets even more exciting....

In Australia, we’re home to over 2,000 species of native bees.  Not all bees are yellow and black honey-makers.  Our native bees come in an astonishing range of colours - metallic, iridescent green and blue to black, yellow, red, and orange - and most don’t live in large colonies at all.

Many are solitary bees. Each female is essentially a single mum, building her nest in the ground, a hollow I a tree, or a plant stem.  These bees are truly wild - and we don’t “own” or ‘keep” them.

But we can support them.

By planting diverse, native, pollinator-friendly plants in our gardens, schools, and parks, we create habitat and food sources that invite these wild bees to thrive.  And honestly? There are few things more delightful than spotting a wild bee visiting your flowers.

One of my favourites is the blue-banded bee - slightly smaller than a honey bee, with electric blue stripes across its abdomen. I like to call them the supermodel rockstars of the bee world.

Blue banded bee mural at the Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctury - La Trobe University Bundoora

Companionship Comes in Many Forms

My dogs give me companionship, pleasure, and entertainment. Bees give me those things too - but in a very different way.

Do my bees know me? Possibly. Research suggests bees can recognise human faces. So yes, my bees might well know who I am - but I’m not convinced the affection is mutual, especially when I’m opening the hive and removing their frames of honey!

And one of my favourite questions: “Do you name your bees?”

Considering a healthy hive can have up to 60,000 bees, the answer is a firm no.

That said, humans love to anthropomorphise bees - turning them into human-like characters. The Bee Movie is a classic example. Barry B. Benson lives a very human life outside the hive, rebelling against his predetermined honey-making career.

It’s wildly inaccurate (for starters, Barry is a male worker bee - when all real worker bees are all female), but it does something important: it helps children connect emotionally with bees and understand what’s at stake if we don’t care for nature.

And that connection matters!

Gus, me and the bees!

Final Verdict: Bees Aren’t Pets… But They’re Something Special

So, are bees pets?

Still no.

But if a pet is something we feel affection for… If companionship can come from observing, learning, and sharing space with another species… If joy can come from watching wild creatures live their lives alongside us…

Then bees are pretty hard to beat.

You don’t need to cuddle them. 

You don’t need to own them. 

You just need to care.

And when we care for bees, we care for the ecosystems and the future we all depend on.

Pets in the Park 2026

Pets in the Park 2026 will take place on Sunday 22 March, from 11 am to 3 pm at Central Park, Malvern East.

A fantastic day for pets and pet lovers is planned, including:

• expert presentations and demonstrations

• vet Q&As

• pet competitions

• stalls and food vendors

• free children’s activities plus more.

Come along and say hello!

Want to ask more questions?

If this kind of ecological storytelling fascinates you, I run workshops and incursions on:

• Bees

• Looking after nature

• The food web

• Biodiversity

• Pollinators

• Sustainability

• and the incredible interconnectedness of our natural world

  
  

I’d love to share this wonder with your school, community group or organisation.

Contact us

Friends with Honey - Bee Incursions, Sustainability Education, Festivals & Events

Peter Rabbit Is a Pest Species!

How Rabbits Wreak Havoc on the Australian Landscape

It’s the 1970s, and one of my earliest reading memories involves a very cheeky little rabbit.

Peter Rabbit.

He was brave, mischievous and endlessly curious - far more adventurous than his sensible sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail. And then there was the villain of the story: the grumpy farmer, Mr McGregor, who selfishly refused to share his French beans and radishes.

Poor Peter Rabbit.

Mean Mr McGregor! 

Fast forward to 2026… and how my perspective has changed.

These days I manage a block of rural conservation land in regional Victoria. I’m surrounded by native wildlife, farmland and a landscape absolutely pockmarked with rabbit holes. Burrows collapse underfoot, seedlings vanish overnight, and erosion scars the soil.

Turns out… I’m Mr McGregor now.  And the rabbits? They’re one of Australia’s most destructive invasive pest species.

Fast forward to 2026… and how my perspective has changed.

Rabbits Don’t Belong Here

Rabbits are not native to Australia.

They arrived over 160 years ago on a ship from England, brought over by a wealthy English colonist named Thomas Austin. In 1859, he released just 24 rabbits onto his property, Barwon Park, near Geelong in Victoria.

Why did he bring them?

Not for food. Not for nostalgia. But for sport - so he could hunt them.

As rabbits do best… some escaped.

And that small act sparked one of the most dramatic ecological disasters in Australia’s history.

(You can still visit Barwon Mansion today - now a National Trust property - and walk the same grounds where this story began.)

How Rabbits Wreak Havoc on the Australian Landscape

Breeding Like… Well, Rabbits

Rabbits are prolific breeders.

A single pair of rabbits can multiply into up to 180 rabbits in just 18 months.

They dig extensive underground burrow systems that:

• Damage tree and plant root systems

• Cause soil erosion

• Create unstable ground for livestock and native animals

And when it comes to eating… rabbits don’t mess around.

They are voracious herbivores, grazing plants right down to the ground and eating up to one-third of their body weight every single day.

This includes:

• Native plants

• Seedlings and regenerating vegetation

• Valuable pasture

• Crops and herbs

They also compete directly with native animals for food and shelter - and spread weed seeds far and wide.

Suddenly Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail don’t seem quite so innocent…

The breeding cycle of rabbits

Don’t We Have Predators?

Yes… and no.

Australia does have some rabbit predators, but many of them - like foxes and feral cats - are also introduced pest species that cause enormous harm to native wildlife.

One native predator does love rabbits though: the wedge-tailed eagle.

In fact, I do recall reading that a wedge-tail eagle could potentially eat one rabbit a day, so a pair of wedge-tailed eagles on a property could be taking in excess of 700 rabbits a year.   Nature doing its thing - when we let it!

And then there’s us.

As human apex predators, we’ve also found many culinary uses for rabbits:

• Rabbit pot pie

• Thai rabbit curry

• Pan-fried rabbit thighs soaked in buttermilk and crumbed (one of my favourites!)

Eating feral animals can be surprisingly… posh!

Why Teaching Children Matters

There is no quick fix to Australia’s rabbit problem.

But one of the most powerful tools we do have is education.

It’s vital that we teach the next generation of nature stewards that:

• Rabbits are invasive, not native

• Cute doesn’t mean harmless

• Human choices have long-lasting environmental consequences

  
  

By sharing the story of how rabbits arrived in Australia, children begin to understand:

• What invasive species are

• How ecosystems can become unbalanced

• Why food webs matter

• That eating feral species like rabbits can be delicious

• How protecting native biodiversity requires informed action

Peter Rabbit might be a beloved storybook character - but in Australia, rabbits are anything but harmless.

And understanding that difference is the first step towards caring for our unique and fragile landscape.

Want to learn more about native and invasive species?

If this kind of ecological storytelling fascinates you, I run workshops on:

• Bees

• Looking after nature

• The food web

• Biodiversity

• Pollinators

• Sustainability

• and the incredible interconnections of our natural world

  
  

I’d love to share this wonder with your school, community group or organisation.

Contact us

Friends with Honey Incursion Programs and Education

There is so much more to learn! Does honey have bee hairs in it?

One of the things I love most about the work I do, is the curious minds of the children I teach.  Kids have an incredible fascination with the natural world. Bees, in particular, capture imaginations like few other creatures. They fly, they dance, they make honey, they work as a team; they are a superorganism! - what’s not to wonder about?

I always tell children during our programs: “I’ve taught you a little bit today… but there is so much more to learn.” And that’s usually the moment when I’m rewarded with the BEST questions - the wonderfully unexpected, delightfully curious kind.

One question that popped up this week, is one that I’ve never been asked before:

“If bees are hairy… do their hairs end up in our honey?”

We all know that moment of horror when we find a human hair lurking in our food.  But a bee hair in honey?  I’ll be honest - I hadn’t thought much about it until I was asked.  But once you start digging into the answer, it turns out to be a fantastic window into bee biology, evolution, and just how clever bees really are.

A jar of honey - straight from the hive!

Why are bees so hairy anyway? 

If you’ve ever seen a macro photo of a bee, you’ll know they are absolutely covered in tiny hairs - from head to toe. This isn’t an accident!

Bees evolved from predatory wasps around 120 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period - yes, back when dinosaurs were roaming the Earth! As flowering plants (called angiosperms) began to spread, some wasps shifted from hunting insects to feeding their larvae on pollen and nectar.

This dramatic dietary change - from meat to a plant-based menu - drove physical changes over time. Hairy bodies turned out to be perfect for collecting pollen, and slowly, those wasp ancestors became the first bees. Bees and flowers evolved together, forming one of nature’s most successful partnerships.

Bees are hairy!

A perfect pollination partnership 

When bees visit flowers, they’re after a sweet reward - nectar.  But while they’re busy slurping nectar, pollen sticks to their hairy bodies and gets carried from flower to flower.

The result?

• Bees get food

• Flowers get pollinated

• Plants can make seeds and fruit

It’s a beautifully balanced symbiotic relationship - one that supports much of the food we eat.

What happens to the nectar inside the hive? (it’s fascinating… and a little gross to humans)

Once back at the hive, the nectar doesn’t magically turn into honey straight away.

Bees regurgitate and pass nectar from mouth to mouth, using their long tongues (called a proboscis). This process is known as trophallaxis - it is a big word but it really just means nectar sharing.  It helps reduce the water content of the nectar and adds enzymes that begin turning it into honey.

It might sound a bit gross to us - but for bees, it’s perfectly normal.

No hair nets or gloves?!

A world away from human run industrial kitchens, inside the hive bees make honey without hair nets, gloves, or stainless-steel. But here’s the incredible part:

Bees are meticulous cleaners.

• They groom themselves constantly

• They groom each other

• Younger house bees remove debris from the hive

In fact, the very first job a worker bee does when she hatches is to clean her own bedroom. Cleaning is quite literally in their DNA.

Before honey cells are sealed with wax, bees clean them thoroughly. And once honey thickens, its sticky texture actually traps particles, stopping them from floating around.

So no — bees aren’t casually dropping hairs into honey and moving on. And one of reasons that honey lasts so long is because its natural composition - specifically its low moisture content and high acidity, making it an inhospitable environment where bacteria and microorganisms cannot survive.

From hive to jar: the beekeeper’s role

One of the reasons I love honey so much (and eat it everyday!) is that it comes entirely from nature and requires very little processing. Compared to many foods on our supermarket shelves, honey is about as pure as it gets.

Here’s what happens:

1. A beekeeper removes a full frame of honeycomb

2. The wax capping is gently scraped or cut off

3. The frame goes into a spinner (called a honey extractor)

4. Honey spins out and settles at the bottom

5. It’s then strained through sieves and filters
   

This process removes wax, pollen, and any tiny debris - including bee hairs.

Could you ever find one? Possibly. Bee hairs are incredibly fine. But just like us, bees lose hairs… and just like us, they don’t want them in their food either!

Spinning and filtering honey

Curiosity for tasting honey!

During our programs, we get to taste delicious honey from my farm, and talk about the amazing journey it’s taken - from flower to hive to jar. And sometimes, that journey starts with a child asking an unexpected question about bee hair.

Those moments of curiosity? That’s where the real learning happens. Because when children ask questions about bees and nature, they’re not just learning facts - they’re learning how to wonder, question, and care about the world around them.

Want to ask more questions?

If this kind of ecological storytelling fascinates you, I run workshops on:

• Bees

• Looking after nature

• The food web

• Biodiversity

• Pollinators

• Sustainability

• and the incredible interconnectedness of our natural world

  
  

I’d love to share this wonder with your school, community group or organisation.

Contact us