Our Aussie Beekeeping Story
Established in 1984, Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies has been supplying equipment to customers throughout Australia and internationally, and we continue to do so from both our original Hornsby store and at our new premises at Mount Druitt.
We supply a broad spectrum of high quality equipment and advice for the professional and amateur beekeeper.
We pride ourselves on exceptional customer service, offering unrivalled advice and guidance to beekeepers in all 'frames' of beekeeping.
Celebrating 40 Years of Australian Beekeeping Heritage
2024 proudly marks Hornsby Beekeeping’s 40th year of trading.
We feel immense contentment over the quality of service, which can be reflected by the overwhelming response of our customers.
On any day, you can find beekeepers standing inside our store either chatting together or having a cuppa. Our customers motivate us to work even harder.
We face the same challenges as the beekeeping industry, facing these challenging times with hard work and good humour. We are beekeepers, and when beekeepers rise above it makes us all proud.
We are a family of Atif, Brad, Cath, Charles, Mike, Ness, Neville, and Rick. We are beekeepers. We are a small business. We are Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies.
A Beekeeping Supplies Story
Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies was established in June 1984 by Bob Davis and Ted Wailes, as one half of Baldwin Trading Pty Ltd.
The other division of the business, Spa Supreme, was much more prominent for the first decade of trading. However, by the time the new millennium came around, Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies started to prove itself.
The spa business started to decline around the time of the new millennium with the ‘recession we had to have’, and in 2001 Bob Davis retired, leaving Mr Wailes to continue the struggle to maintain a small beekeeping business, aided by Chris With.
The “Millennium Drought” had an enormous affect on the beekeeping business, but Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies continued to expand at a small pace.
After the breakdown of the drought, Mr Wailes saw an increase in business and abandoned Spa Supreme to focus on beekeeping equipment. Commercial beekeepers still have memories of this time, especially the difficulty of loading trucks in the little lane at Hornsby.
Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies and the bee club established a long-lasting and fruitful relationship which still endures.
Mr. Wailes built connections and established relationships with various suppliers including Quarti, Kunstelj, and Sherriff. His hard work helped Hornsby Beekeeping Suppliers become a crucial resource for the upper and lower North Shore and eventually much of Sydney.
In 2010, Mr Wailes made an important decision. He handed the steering over of the business over to a skillful and proficient young man so that he could modernise and expand the business structure.
Mr Wailes retired at this time, although he remains a dear friend to Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies and still offers his wisdom and advice to the business.
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In September 2010, JSAM Pty. Ltd purchased Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies.
Atif Jamil, a mechanical engineer by trade, has run the business from this point onwards. Atif proved himself to be a quick learner, and in no time he had learnt the beekeeping industry from the inside out, forming valuable relationships with beekeepers throughout Australia and travelling far and wide through NSW.
In 2012, Hornsby Beekeeping Supplies expanded to Mouth Druitt, aiming to better serve Western Sydney and the rest of NSW. Our Mount Druitt store is easy to access from the M4 and M7, and a larger warehouse makes it easy to load trucks. In time we added another warehouse in the same complex.
Launching a website in 2012 has made it super convenient for us to deliver online orders to backyard and sideliner beekeepers from all over Australia and even across the globe.
In 2014, we established a factory in Pakistan, sourcing premium New Zealand grown wood, to manufacture superior hiveware at competitive prices to better serve our customers
We also started developing our own mesh bottom base, which has proved to be a popular product. With the assistance of HBS employees, especially Rick, Atif took this product from a prototype to a useful bottom board, and we continue to make improvements to the design.
We also took the initiative to develop a three-layer mesh overall, which is appreciated and praised by backyard beekeepers and commercial beekeepers alike.
In 2019, we expanded our original store by shifting it to a more spacious & accessible warehouse shop in Hornsby.
In 2020, we took a plunge by purchasing and installing a beeswax foundation machine (made by Reitsche Germany).
Pandemic travel restrictions meant the circumstances forced us to put on our 'beekeeping gloves' and set the whole system up ourselves.
Deciphering the German instructions was a challenge. However, the gamble paid off, and we now manufacture our own 100% Australian beeswax foundation. In 2023 we purchased a printer (roller) to enable us to produce drone comb as well.
In the past year or so our industry holds our breath in light of the varroa incursion in the city of Newcastle to eventually see the authority body transition from eradication strategy to management strategy. The impact will be drastic because it has and will completely change the playbook of Australian beekeeping for the coming years.