This week we meet a Brisbane Beekeeper Mark from Pine Bees. It has been so much fun to connect with Beekeepers in Australia and USA so I hope you enjoy reading their stories.
My name is Mark Randell but my friends call me Mick. I'm 47 years old, married with 3 kids and live in the pine rivers district of Brisbane. I've been a backyard bee-keeper for 2 and half years.
Back in 2014 I had a car accident and couldn't do my job any more but then I heard about the decline of the bees around the world and wanted to help plus I researched how much we need them.
My biggest personal reward would be sharing the knowledge about the bees to the general public and children with bee talks but public speaking makes me nervous.
I really haven't had a major challenge in beekeeping. Excitement, yes and catching swarms and teaching people beekeeping is probably the biggest challenge. I do get nervous with bee talks (LD - I am sure you are fine!!!). 
My average beekeeping duties are inspections of the hives which roughly means checking for the Queen to make sure the hive is healthy, cleaning the small hive beetle traps and felt mats and extraction of the odd honey frames and keeping an eye on the numbers of bees and deciding whether to split or not.
My biggest tips I could give to a beginner is don't over work yourself with the bee's a good tip is research, research, research, join a bee club, placement of your hives in your backyard and don't stress there are a lot of friendly beekeepers that are happy to help plus the bees can be very therapeutic.
Follow Mick on Facebook here at https://www.facebook.com/Pine-Bees-352555711758804/
Awesome mate great insight keep up the great work you do brother
You are doing really great. I have learned so much about Bee’s. And the work that the Bee’s do in our Environment. And to think I was scared of Bee’s. But not anymore. Thank you Mick and all the Bee Keeper’s out in this wonderful country of ours.