The apiarist has learned to channel them to his advantage and often employs and gives advice to young people dealing with them.
"I’m horrendously dyslexic and have ADHD, so I don’t really write much and I’m an appalling speller. On my father’s side everyone is an academic, so I’m the odd ball on both sides of the family who doesn’t have a degree.
"On saying that, I’m good in business and have, or had, more energy than anyone else which is my problem with ADHD — I just can’t stop.
For beekeeping this is amazing because there’s always another bee box to lift."
Springbank Honey is run by a team led by himself and wife Tracy, with the business based just outside of North Canterbury’s Cust.
They employ about 10 people over the winter, with staff numbers doubling in the summer when the honey is harvested, mainly from their farm, Glenburn, at Lees Valley and neighbouring properties.
On the 3700ha farm, rising to 1650m at the top, hives are placed in valley microclimates and closed native blocks on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), while 400 head of Angus and Hereford cattle and deer are grazed.
"It is hard country — it’s very good when it’s nice to you and a hard mistress when it’s bad."
Mr Brown said the bees were the main reason they bought Glenburn, because of its many stands of manuka and beech forest and tussock lands.
North and east facing blocks miss the harsh nor’west winds, while microclimates out the back provide a protected environment.
A blending and processing business run by the couple at Oxford produces 800 tonnes to 1000 tonnes of honey a year, for themselves and other producers.
Mainly manuka honey is shipped around the world, exported to the likes of the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan, Saudi Arabia and China.
Clover, thyme and honey dew honey also goes offshore, but manuka honey provides more than 95% of the overall value.
Some of this is sold under their own brand to the US, but most of it is shipped or air-freighted to packers who put their own or other brands on it for resale.
"We are pushing really heavily our own brand purely into the US ... we want to increase our direct sales of bulk honey and our packed honey for our value return for beekeepers. The amount of money we are getting is tiny and the retail price hasn’t changed, but the wholesale price has crashed, so I have been trying to increase our margin."
Their own honey and cattle operations complemented each other by evening out income streams, as beekeeping was seasonal.
Many of their team members also enjoyed switching from honey to cattle work.
Income from bees going on blocks of land being retired to the ETS went into opening up more Glenburn land for cattle, with plans to increase them to 1000 head.
Raised on a Rangiora lifestyle block, Mr Brown served a "sink or swim" apprenticeship after leaving school at 15.
His father’s best friend was one of the largest queen bee raisers in the country and they shipped him to the West Coast and Whangarei to learn the trade. Three years later he bought out the partner of his mentor, Max Holden, in Oxford.
Mr Brown said he would change nothing as he had an amazing life beekeeping, working in the processing factory, going to sales meetings and trips around the world, living and breathing honey.
He has learned both conditions are a strength more than a weakness and to channel them so he has control in his life.
Being a balanced person was good for his family and business growth, while he has been told his dyslexia helps him think outside the square and come up with a new business idea every day.
"I really love ADHD employees and regularly hire lots of them and mentor on how to turn it from a negative into a strength.
" It’s a strength as long as you know how to use it and it took me years for it to become this amazing superpower."
