SIX GENERATIONS OF BEEKEEPING
McDonald Honey is a sixth-generation, family-owned beekeeping business based in Castlemaine, Victoria. For over 140 years, our family has kept bees, worked across the Victorian landscape and produced honey from the flowers our bees forage. McDonald Honey is now run by Peter & Michelle, who are continuing this local family business.
From our McDonald family to yours, discover the people, places and bees behind Castlemaine Honey.
BEEKEEPING IN CASTLEMAINE SINCE 1885
When John & Ellen McKendry settled in Castemaine in the heady days of the gold rush, little did they realise that it would be the local liquid gold that would become a continuous thread through the future generations.
With the honeybees starting firstly as a source of food for the family, it soon evolved to also become a tool to provide pollination of the crops grown to sustain the market gardens that the McKendry family ran.
After Eileen McKendry joined forces with the next door neighbour, a full time beekeeper, Bob McDonald, it became a full time beekeeping obsession. No time for market gardens now, honey was the prize to be won.
Peter and Michelle continue this tradition in beekeeping, sourcing different varieties of honey from local Castlemaine trees and throughout Victoria's regions. Providing the bees for pollination is still an essential part of the business, though for other peoples crops, not our own any more. Recently, Keely joined the business, carrying on our beekeeping tradition into a sixth generation.
It seems that once honey is in your veins it is hard to get out.
HONEY, FROM TREE TOP TO TABLE
Our honey begins with the flowers and treetops our bees forage and ends with the honey straight from the hive. Every jar has a story.
In this video, follow owners and beekeepers Peter and Michelle as they work with our bees along the Murray River, caring for the hives and harvesting honey from the places our bees call home. See the journey from the treetops to the hive, and watch Peter taste the finished product straight from the source.
