I thought imagine if you could have a
sunny directly out of the hive without
so that the honey would just come
straight out of the box and into the jar
my friend father keeps raising my father
keeps bees and my brothers uncles
cousins and now my sisters and
harvesting honey has always been a real
labor of love first you have to protect
yourself from stings fire up a smoker to
sedate the bees then crack open the
boxes and lift heavy boxes take those
frames out
try not to squash too many bees brush
off all the bees or use a leaf blower
and take those frames to a processing
shed cut off all the wax capping then
load those frames into a centrifuge spin
out all the honey filter out all the wax
and B bits and if that’s not a hard
enough hard work the frames have to go
back to the hives again it’s a hot
sweaty heavy messy lot of hard work I
thought there has to be a better way so
we’re dead now I got to work on what
turned out to be a decade long process
to invent the beekeepers dream so I
first started by getting a piece of comb
out of the hive and cutting the back off
the comb and the honey didn’t drain out
and I thought that’s interesting and
then I cut the front off the comb and
thought this is sure to work but the
honey still wouldn’t drain out no I
thought well maybe if I tip the beehive
on its side and built this crazy
contraption then the honey will come out
but the viscosity and surface tension
was such that the honey would stick in
that hexagon matrix and wouldn’t come
out so then I thought well maybe I can
push it out so I cast a hexagon piston
plungers to go down cells and that
didn’t work and then I thought maybe I
can suck it out and that didn’t work so
I and really the only thing that keeps
you doing is being optimistic that yes I
can make this idea work and then one
morning when I was almost awake I
thought maybe it doesn’t have to be
hexagon cells all the time maybe it can
be hexagon cells when the bees are
filling them with honey and transform
into something else when it’s time to
harvest the honey so then I was building
this prototype sort of out of just bits
and pieces that were lying around we ran
on this fell of an oily rag say I mean
literally we ran our cars off old
fishing ship oil from the chip shop and
so the prototype was made out of bits of
wood and old corinna tube and hot melt
glue and we put them into the hive and
while I was staying to get somewhere my
dad one morning after a couple of stone
coffees goes hang on how about instead
of doing it like this we do it like this
and he just moved his hands in such a
way and I straightaway dropped
everything I was doing and rushed into
the shed and we built this prototype put
it in the Beehive and here is the first
drops of honey harvested in that way
[Applause]
so then it was a case of repeating a
single little experiment we had so we
moved on to 3d printing and 3d printing
was expensive back then cost $2,000 for
this small little comb area and we put
that into the hive and the bees liked it
they they waxed it all up they filled it
with honey and there we were in the
paddock with a spanner like thing on the
outside of the hive there’s the very
first job at Florence so there we were
standing after all this work in the
paddock me and my dad with the very
first jar of honey in the world to be
I mean saw it but would anyone like it
perhaps we were just too deluded
inventors wiling away and they said
hoping we would invent something that
the world would like and is it a
positive contribution to the world and
that’s a question that I think every
inventor should ask themselves and we
thought yes if we can make beekeeping
more accessible yes if we can make it a
gentle process for the bees so the way
it works is we give them partly formed
honeycomb cells the bees then cover it
all in wax completely comb and draw they
came out further then they cap it all
off with their beeswax then we come
along from the outside of the hive and
turn the handle and inside the comb but
Neath the bees feet the parts move
allowing honey to drain down to the
trough at the bottom and out of the hive
[Applause]
I can’t wait any longer I love honey and
I love you too honey so there we were
with our brand-new invention but how do
we get it to the world so we started
exploring the world trodden roads of
convincing investors or or selling out
to companies or licensing our patents
and I thought there must be a better way
perhaps we can sell enough on
crowdfunding to cover our costs so then
my talented sister
Mira helped us put together a great
crowdfunding video and I’m just gonna
have to change that honey jar because
so there we were in the shed that we
call our home my better half enough now
friends were roping in to do this launch
and this yet it’s kind of the perfect
synergy between sort of workshop and
kitchen and I mean for me anyway but
perhaps it’s not so great for for
domestic harmony so so there we were
about to press the Go button and you
might notice that we’ve got a baby on
the way
now just to add a little bit more
pressure to the situation our landlord
just told us that he’s selling the
property and selling our home and I said
don’t worry honey I’ve gotten the
invention so oh yeah we press the Go
button and we reached our $70,000 target
I was in kind of a dreamlike state after
being up all night trying to finish the
page and then we reached 1 million
dollars in two hours and that was a
world crowdfunding record for the
fastest to a million dollars then in a
day we had two million u.s. dollars in
orders then we broke another world
crowdfunding record of the most
successful campaign ever to launch
outside of the US then the campaign
topped out at twelve point two million
and so then we’re just trying to rope in
friends and family there’s thousands of
emails coming in and people are saying
you’re gonna save the world you’re
saving the bees and other people think
no you won’t you’re gonna ruin the world
it’s the end of civilization and we’re
here going well well settle down
everyone it won’t save the world but it
might help yes you still need to look
after your bees as you always have done
sinned yes it really does work sin no
it’s not a scam we have a 24/7
production line running in Brisbane
Australia and after we’ve shipped twenty
five thousand five hundred and fifty two
hello I know sorry I’m I’m too busy who
honey it’s New York Times um could you
possibly come tomorrow morning instead
know really crazy time to have a baby
but hang so what was amazing is
thousands of emails are pouring in every
day it’s kind of like whack-a-mole they
pop up you whack him down and pop up
again and we wrote be an asshole
team of friends and family to help with
this and a common thread was where
you’ve been a beekeeper one month and
you’ve already turned your whole
neighborhood pesticide free that’s
amazing and thousand
thousands more emails are flooding into
our team with this common thread of
people really advocating for the bees
and the important role they play in the
world because when you become a
beekeeper you can’t help but notice the
interconnectedness of all life on Earth
that we completely depend on so I think
the world loved our invention loved this
new way of harvesting honey and was now
shipped forty-eight thousand flow hives
to a hundred and thirty different
[Applause]
and 60% of these hives have gone to new
beekeepers who quickly become advocates
for the bees 40 years ago there was
200,000 beekeepers in the USA just five
years ago those numbers had halved now
I’m happy to say we’re making a
because if we look after the bees then
we look after our natural world and
honey really is an amazing bonus we all
have ideas and we all see better ways
right here in this room and in your
backyard there are thousands of
inventions waiting to happen and our
world needs backyard inventors to see
those better ways to be driven by
optimism passion and purpose to change
our world for the better thank you [Applause]