Backyard Bees

A bee beats its wings about 11,400 times a minute and creates about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. So it’s appropriate that these hard-working insects are recognised on World Bee Day, celebrated on May 20. Frank Nelson speaks with Marlburians who have either made a hobby, or a living, managing these wonderful creatures.

Backyard beekeeper Dion Mundy, who turned to the hobby nine years ago to assist pollination of fruit trees on his Tuamarina lifestyle block, now looks after six hives on the property.

He says pretty much anyone who wants to produce their own honey can buy a hive or two, stocking them with a nucleus of bees and a queen to grow into a colony of perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 per hive.

Beekeepers must register and abide by certain rules and regulations designed to protect the bees, the honey industry and their neighbours … and those who eat the honey.

Dion estimates set-up costs of a few hundred dollars for hives and bees, protective overalls, gloves and various tools, and to satisfy regulatory requirements; ongoing annual expenses could be about $100 per hive. If this all sounds a little daunting, there are two easily accessible resources designed to make the process very much smoother: the Marlborough Beekeepers Association and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).

Dion, long-time president of the association, says they support hobbyists and the commercial industry. The club has three hives at the NMIT site in Budge Street and hosts regular workshops, demonstrations and guest speakers. A one-day introductory workshop for budding beekeepers touches on everything from the cost and time commitment to the importance of being a good neighbour.

Key requirements for backyard hives are a sheltered, sunny spot and access to water which, says Dion, can be as simple as a dripping tap. “You can have a beehive in an urban setting and your neighbours don’t even know it’s there. But a few (wrong) placement issues can mean all the bees go flying over your neighbour’s clothesline or into their swimming pool looking for water.”

Dion reckons most hobbyists can expect 20kg to 40kg of honey per hive in a good season. However, if they plan to sell, or even give away, any of their honey, it must first be laboratory tested to ensure it’s safe to eat.

NMIT runs nine-month courses in Blenheim and Nelson which include two Saturdays per month of practical learning and two Tuesdays of online tutorials.

Dion, a senior scientist at Plant and Food Research, in Blenheim, enrolled in the initial NMIT course which finished in May last year. “Although I was already an experienced beekeeper, I wanted some more background knowledge and information. And I really enjoyed it. We built the hives first as part of the course, put the bees in, fed them, looked after them through the year, got them ready to go through the winter and then took the hives home.”

Students also take home their text books and a certificate. About 30 hives are currently on the Blenheim campus where students experience a very practical, hands-on learning environment.“All the students can see what’s happening in everyone’s hives,” says Dion.

Primary Industries curriculum manager, Pam Wood, says a new Level 3 apiculture course will be offered again starting in August and approval is pending for a second course on rearing queen bees.

There are 31 students on the current beekeeping course and she expects demand to remain strong for both the next courses which will be running in Blenheim and Richmond.

Oh, honey honey

Honey is not the sweet business it once was according to some Marlborough producers who, paradoxically, lay part of the blame on the nation’s flagship manuka honey.

Manuka has made some producers rich and created jobs in regions where they were sorely needed; the best grade manuka, highly valued for its health benefits, continues to command top dollar.

However, some see manuka as both a blessing and a curse. They say its success sparked a gold-rush mentality: speculators hoping to cash in on the latest trend triggered a production boom leading to oversupply and tumbling honey prices.

According to the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), in 2017, with annual production nudging 15,000 tonnes, beekeepers were getting between $10 and $14 per kilogram for bulk sales of regular clover honey.

Three years later MPI stats show production had soared to 27,000 tonnes and the prices had withered to between $2.50 and $5.50 per kilogram … less than break-even for many producers.

The huge number of hives in New Zealand tells the same story: the ministry counted 918,000 hives at the end of 2019 while at the end of last year the entire United States had just under three million.

Beekeepers Patrick and Laura Dawkins, owners of Pyramid Apiaries, on Waihopai Valley Road, about 20km west of Blenheim, have responded to the subdued market by diversifying. The couple started with four hives in 2016 and today they have around 400; that means, at the height of the summer season, they could be managing upwards of 20 million bees.

But even at those numbers, it’s hard to make a living just from honey production, says Patrick. So they have branched out into pollination - primarily cherry orchards and various seed crops - and breeding queens for other beekeepers.

Patrick, who is also owner and editor of Apiarist’s Advocate, a monthly e-magazine and website, says honey now accounts for roughly half their income with pollination and queens each contributing about a quarter. “The industry might be on a slow recovery now but it’s been a tough few years,” he says. “Things really boomed on the back of manuka honey… then there was a bit of a change in the rules, the standards, definitions about what could be exported as manuka honey.

“That ruled out a lot of honey as being manuka which created a surplus of non-manuka honey and not a lot of demand for it,” said Patrick, adding there’s now quite a stockpile sitting around in sheds waiting for the market to improve.

And improve it will, says a confident Murray Bush, who with brother Peter is the third generation at the helm of J Bush & Sons Honey, founded more than a century ago and today something of a Blenheim institution. “It’s going through the bust stage of a boom-and-bust cycle,” Murray says, adding that similar roller-coaster rides have been experienced in recent years by the likes of wine and kiwifruit.

“The industry is basically in good shape … I’m very positive about the future. We’re still producing a magnificent product that is top echelon compared to the rest of the world.”

The Bush brothers have around 2500 hives across Marlborough while another Blenheim producer, Taylor Pass Honey, has about 7000 hives divided roughly equally between Marlborough and Wanaka.

Operations manager Rex Butt says, besides producing honey they do some processing and packing for other producers, export live bees to Canada, breed queens, and provide pollination services for Central Otago cherry orchards. “I’m definitely optimistic,” says Rex. “I think we’re seeing the industry start to mature a bit. It’s gone through the cowboy phase quite quickly and is now starting to build some strong foundations.”

He also welcomes signs of consolidation, perhaps along the lines shown in the wine industry. “Those big players do an awful lot to add to our brand value internationally (and) give the rest of us credibility.”

May 20 is the official World Bee Day. On this day, Slovenian man Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734. The purpose of the international day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators for the ecosystem.