The 2017 Honey Season in NZ

How has the honey season been this year? Terrible!

The manuka has hardly flowered at all, around our place. And it looks like it is universal, across the country.

Comvita has come out and said that it expects their honey harvest to be only 40% of normal. Check out the article in the NZ Herald.

Why is the season so bad? Must be the weather. It has been quite cold for summer, for most of the season.

The season is not over yet, and I guess it could still surprise us. My apple tree has decided to blossom. Again. So it has blossoms AND apples on at the same time. And my magnolia is equally confused, it's doing a second round of flowers, after the normal October flowering. Almost like they think it is just spring now.

So what can you do when the weather wrecks your honey season?

Not a lot, but check out these suggestions at Business of Bees.

And may the force be with you. Everyone is in the same boat this year, it seems.

3 fatal mistakes to avoid when starting a new bee business

Are you making these 3 fatal mistakes in your planning for a new bee business?

You've decided that there is money to be made in the manuka honey industry. You've done the research on the interwebs and found a wealth of useful information. It all looks like a dream run. What could go wrong?

Well, that's all fine. And not. 

Here are 3 fatal mistakes to avoid in your planning for a new bee business to take advantage of the burgeoning manuka honey industry.

1. Trying to do everything

Paying people to do some of the tasks is expensive, right? So, no problem, you'll do them all yourself.

Here are some things that are involved in creating honey and bee products and getting them to market:

• own your own hives
• be the beekeeper
• run all aspects of the business
• build boxes
• make queens
• extract honey
• package honey
• sell honey
• make other products, say hand cream or candles
• own the land the hives are on
• grow your own manuka

Doing all this means you are self-sufficient, a grand and wonderful thing.

It also means you are very busy. And very busy translates to only being able to do so much. For a full description of what you are likely to achieve and what to do about it, read more here at businessofbees.com.

2. Not allowing for the weather

We have weather, pretty much guaranteed. And some weather is not ideal. You can bet your bottom dollar on this one too.

So does your financial and business plan allow for a bad season? Or bad parts of the season?

2015/16 was a poor season in parts of NZ, a storm stopped short the manuka honey flow. 2016/17 is not looking too grand either. Word is, it is not so flash in many parts of the country - it's not over yet, but not going good so far. Even though the weather has been pretty benign, you would think.

What if next year is poor? And the year after? Does your plan suggest you will survive? Or do you need a string of bumper crops to make it all work?

Which brings us to mistake no. 3:

3. Using the wrong numbers

The internet is a strange place. You can find just about anything you want. But finding the context is a bit harder.

So here are some numbers the internet might suggest are good for bee business planning:

• growing about 1000 hives in your first year
• getting 40 kg honey per hive
• making $40 / kg on your honey

That sounds great doesn't it? No problem with making a profit then. But there are a few traps using these numbers just straight. It's all a bit more nuanced than it might first seem. 

For more detail on how these numbers can go wrong see this blog post.

And for some ideas on how to fix this, check out the full story in this blog post.

If you can avoid these 3 fatal mistakes and still make your financial and business plan look like it'll work, then you are ahead of the game, and have a good chance of having a business that will work. 

Beehive Thefts

There's been a rash of beehive thefts lately.

There are a few things going that that might cause this: The price of manuka honey is rising fast. And the bee industry is growing like crazy too, with lots of new beekeepers coming in to the industry to try and make a good dollar.

This also means the value of beehives is increasing too. A 2 box hive used to cost about $700 a couple of years ago, now it is above $1000.

All of this creates an industry where the get-rich-pickings seem irresistable, so the opportunity is there for less scrupulous people to take advantage too. Hence the increase in beehive thefts.

Where are the bee thefts from?

This is not from any official source like the police, but my gatherings of anecdotal information over the last month or so.

It seems that beehive thefts have been occurring in quite a few places:

• North Waikato
• Whanganui
• Tauranga
• Hokianga
• South Wairarapa

It doesn't seem to be such a problem in the South Island.

What have the thieves been doing?

Well, this is where it gets a bit bizarre.

There is the usual, which is what you might expect, where thieves take whole boxes. At this time of year it is often 2 box hives. And they leave just a dent in the grass. In one case they took the boxes but left the bases.

And how many hives are taken? It depends a bit on how many hives are at a site. And how many make up a truck or ute load. The numbers are from 12 to dozens.

Thieves have cut through padlocks to get into paddocks. Or lifted the whole lot over wire fences, quite a mission.

In another variation, the thieves took just the frames and bees out of the boxes, and left the boxes behind.

Then bizarrely, there have been a couple of cases it seems, where the thieves took the frames, and replaced them with new plastic foundation frames. Is that weird or not? Well, maybe, maybe not.

Read the full post here for some theories about who these thieves are, and an outline of things you can do to protect your hives.

10 little-known magic medicinal benefits of honey

Jars of manuka honey

The world is in trouble from super-bugs.

Back in 1928 the first antibiotic - penicillin - was accidentally discovered. And it worked a treat, curing all sorts of life-threatening bacterial infections. Other antibiotics were discovered or created. Great! People were declaring the world would soon be completely free from bacterial disease.

But what has happened? Bacteria has developed resistance to our antibiotics. And some of these bacteria are now a huge problem in our hospitals. MRSA is a big one.

Honey as medicine

The answer to all this may well be in honey.

Honey has been used for millennia as a healing agent. And now manuka honey is a thing (and has only been in existence for the last 150 years) it adds an extra layer too (see number 4.).

So, how does honey deal with bacteria?

Here are 10 magical ways that honey can heal bacterial infections:

1. Osmotic Action

The high sugar content of honey pulls water out of the surrounding environment, and effectively dehydrates bacteria, causing them to die.

2. High Acidity

Honey is acidic. This stops microbial growth of bacteria.

3. Hydrogen Peroxide

Glucose Oxidase is an enzyme added by bees - see this post for more about this. It turns into hydrogen peroxide, which is an antibiotic. All honey does this, some more than others.

4. Non-peroxide Activity

This one is manuka honey only. Manuka honey makes methylgloxal (MGO), which is a heat stable antibacterial.

5. Moist Wound Environment

Honey supports the formation of new tissue in wounds by creating a moist wound environment. Most antibiotics delay healing.

6. Debridement

Honey helps with the removal of dead, damaged or infected tissue. This is necessary so the new tissue can grow.

7. Stops Noxious Odours

Deep wounds smell, which is distressing. Honey works to stop these noxious odours.

8. Anti-inflammatory

Honey soothes and relieves inflammation.

9. Anti-fungal

Some honeys inhibit fungal growth.

10. Antioxidants

Honey is an antioxidant. Which we all know promotes good health and longevity.


Isn't that cool? That's for all honeys, not just manuka. Manuka is just extra special, and super powerful.

If you would like to read a bit more of the science, check out the full post at Business of Bees.

If you would like to grow manuka trees, check out the free resources here.

How do bees make honey from nectar?

The bees are all busy collecting nectar at this time of year, in the spring.

But what do they do with it? How do they turn it into honey?

The short story is, they change the sugars chemically, and remove water. Let's look at that in more depth:

Collecting nectar

Plants produce nectar in nectaries. Nectar is mostly sucrose and water.

The shiny middle is the nectary, and nectar. This is a manuka flower.

When a forager bee visits, she will suck up the nectar with her long mouth part. She stores the nectar in her sac in front of her stomach.

A bee can carry up to about 40mg, which is the size of a large raindrop. Quite a lot, compared to the size of a bee!

Inside her stomach, enzymes are added. These start the process of converting the sucrose to simple sugars of glucose and fructose.

Back to the hive

The forager returns back to the hive with her load. There she passes the nectar to the mouths of waiting hive bees. 

These bees also add the same enzymes, to continue the chemical changes. 

The processing bees spend about 20 minutes holding droplets out on their 'tongues', so some water can evaporate. 

Evaporation continues

Once the moisture content is down to about 30 - 50% the hive bees put the nectar into cells, just lightly packed and spread on the cell walls.

The bees turn the hive into a huge dehumidifier, and start fanning their wings to circulate warm air throughout the hive to evaporate more moisture from the ripening honey. This works best at night when the outside humidity is lower.

They also move the honey around from cell to cell, gradually increasing the quantity in each cell.

The honey comb cells are capped

When the honey is fully ripe, it is repacked into a new cell, full up, and a wax cap put on the top. This is like putting the lid on a jar of honey - it prevents the honey from reabsorbing moisture.

It's important that the moisture content is kept low, as otherwise the honey will start to ferment, and the sugar change into alcohol, which is toxic to the bees.

Honey qualities

So these marvellous bees have:

• changed the sugar to glucose and fructose - which is an easily digestible form of energy
• added other enzymes that create antibacterial properties (this is all honey, not just manuka - manuka has another, extra chemical process)
• evaporated water so the honey won't ferment
• made it more acidic, which helps it keep

And then they store it, so the whole colony can survive winter. All pretty special for the animal kingdom.

If you would like to read a bit more of the science-y bits, see the full post at Business of Bees

The honey flow is on

Manuka just starting to flower in spring

The manuka is starting to flower! That's here in Auckland. In Northland it is partly over, not been a great season for them apparently as it was quite wet this spring. And further south, the trees will still be budding up.

But right here, we've got about 6 weeks of lovely manuka flowers for our bees to go out foraging on, to make high grade manuka honey. This is called the Honey Flow.

How to tell when the honey flow is starting?

How do you identify when the nectar is ready and the bees are starting to make honey?

There are 4 things to look for:

1. The bees are out and about, on the flowers, and they are non-aggressive

2. The entrance to the hive is very active with bees

3. They are building white wax in the hive, which will become the honey comb

4. If you tip a frame up, fresh nectar will drip out

Why timing your bee build up is so important

It's important to get the timing of the bee colony numbers build up just right.

If the bees build up too quickly, and are at peak before the honey flow, they may starve (and die).

If they build up too slowly, then once the nectar starts, there will not be enough bees to maximise nectar collection and honey production and the beekeeper will miss the honey flow, and have a poor harvest.

It they build up too quickly, they are likely to swarm. And you lose half your bees to some distant tree.

You want a large population of workers old enough to forage for nectar right as the honey flow starts. How many is 'large'? Enough bees to fully occupy more than 1 brood box.

How to take advantage of the honey flow

There are quite a few more steps to ensure you have a good harvest:

1. What size hive is best? Lots of small ones? A few big ones?

2. When do you add honey supers (the boxes that go on the top of the hive that get filled with honey)? How many honey supers should you add at a time? 

3. How often do you need to check the hives?

4. What type of frames should you add? - drawn comb frames or foundation? - this means frames already with the honey comb on them (drawn), or frames where the bees build their own comb (foundation). This will have a definite impact on your harvest.

To read more about these issues, visit the full post here at Business of Bees.

How to grow manuka from cuttings v2

Last week's cuttings didn't do so well now did they? Drat!

So I had a bit of a think about what went wrong. And did some research.

And here is what I remembered, and discovered:

Spring cuttings

Spring v Autumn

There is quite a difference in technique in making cuttings in spring and in making cuttings in summer and autumn.

In spring the trees are just starting to grow. The new tips are soft and tender and small.

In summer and autumn the tips are much hardier. The wood is harder, the tips are longer between the leaves (called nodes).

Both times are good, as the tree is still growing, but a different method of making cuttings is required. And last week's experiment was the autumn way. In spring.

So, how did I do it this time round?

Spring Cuttings

The trick with cuttings is to make them about 3-4 nodes long. Now the problem with this is that manuka has tiny leaves. So 3-4 nodes is tiny also. And in spring the growth is REALLY close together.

In the end, I made mine about 3cm (1 inch) long. Still more than 4 nodes, but about the size my fingers could cope with.

tiny spring cuttings of manuka

And guess what? It worked! They all look pretty much the same, a week later, as the top picture when I had just planted them.

Next up, I'll let them grow until they start producing roots, then let you know just when to pot them up, how to tell, and what to do next.

In the meantime, if you want a bit more in depth information, and more pictures check out the full post in Business of Bees.

And don't forget to sign up for your free Step by step guide to growing manuka from seeds.

Spring's a great time of year to grow manuka from seed!