What a year!… It’s been too long sinse I last sat down to write a blog and it’s hard to know where to start. I guess I’ll start with last season (2018). It was a great spring following a mild winter and things were looking great for the bees. They were large in numbers and already we were piling on the supers, which was unusual for us at this time of year. The sun was beaming each day and the flowers were blooming. This continued and continued… and continued. Then we came to a halt.
With no rain for two months, we were begining to see the effects of a drought. The flowers wilted and the nectar flow stopped. Suddenly our heavy supers on top of hives became lighter and lighter and the queens even reduced their lay. Still the sun continued to shine each and every day. Although we eventually had rain, it seemed too late for our hopes of a good honey crop in 2018. We just hoped our bees would gain enough stores to get them through the remainder of the year.
Our season was not disastrous, though. We did make some honey, and we worked hard in starting up a larger scale queen production programme, which is our plan to provide me with work once I finish my apprenticeship position in 2020. From running a couple dozen mini nucs the previous year, we created two breeding apiaries and worked up to 60 mini nucs. We did well to adapt to our new system and felt ambitious for our next and final season before I complete my three years.
As part of my BFA apprenticeship, I also get the opportunity to work abroad and gain experience from other beekeepers. I chose to take my opportunity in New Zealand, where I spent four months working for Mana Kai Honey company in the Northland of North Island. Being on the opposite side of the world and with opposite seasons, I was jammy enough to escape the English winter and swapped it for a beautiful New Zealand summer.
Beekeeping in New Zealand felt worlds apart from beekeeping in the UK. It seemed as though, everywhere you looked, there was honey for sale and bee hives in fields. No one seemed suprised when they asked what I did, not like at home. Very few people I speak to in the UK have ever met a beekeeper, never mind seen a working bee hive. In New Zealand, the people are more than accustomed to seeing trucks stacked with bee hives driving by, and keepers walking around in their suits. It was the norm. With a lush green climate, warm temperatures and just enough rain to keep the flora happy, New Zealand was pretty much the perfect country for beekeeping.
I was given a huge warm welcome into the Mana Kai team, which employed over twenty staff, including cleaners, extractors, carpenters, office staff, shop assistants and, of course, beekeepers. This was a big surprise, having spent two years working in a team of two, my boss Jo and me. And Mana Kai was considered a “small” company in comparrsion to opposition companies!
Having arrived part way into the season, the team was already in full swing, distributing supers and creating nucleuses. I was paired with Emma, herself relatively new to beekeeping, and was in charge of the new queen rearing operation. Our bosses, Bobby and Sara felt we would make a good pair, both being able to share ideas and techniques. To begin with, our daily routine was not too dissimilar to mine at home. Emma and I would spend a certain amount of time working on the rearing colonies and grafting from breeders, then spend the remainder of the day travelling from site to site, checking colonies for laying queens, signs of swarming and their general status. A week flew by and I felt comfotably settled into my new position.
Then things began to change as we approached the manuka season. Now my time was being shared between helping Emma through the day and then the other beekeepers during the nights. With the manuka in bud stage, the team was working hard preparing to move the hives into the mountains, down south in Taupo. Throughout the day, the boys would be out checking colonies on the farthest sites, selecting those which would be taken to the manuka and compiling them onto pallets of four hives each. Then in the evening around 7pm, several beekeepers would seperate into teams of two or more and head out in the yutes (pick up trucks).
With some sites being over an hour and a half away, we had to spread out to the smaller sites first and make our way back to the larger ones to work together. At each of the sites, we had to close off the selected colonies, already placed together on pallets, and strap them down. Then a fork lift or an adapted tractor would be used to lift the pallets on to the yutes for us to strap them down using industrial-sized ratchet straps, slightly different to our little hive straps at home!
Each night we collected around 30 pallets which were driven back and unloaded onto a “dump” site where we re-opened them. The next day, after queen rearing, we would return to the dump site to help the boys prepare the colonies. Each colony had to be at least eight frames of brood compiled into one brood box, with a healthy laying queen. Because manuka doesn’t produce much pollen and the mountains have little or no other forage, we had to give each colony a large handfull of pollen substitute to sustain them. Finally, we applied a queen excluder, two more brood boxes (acting as supers) and a feeder.
This continued for the week, collecting and preparing, working an average of fifteen hours a day. Eventually it was time to take the first batch to Taupo. For this, the whole beekeeping team was needed. We met at the dump site early evening with fork lifts and HGV flat beds at the ready. A team of us would begin by closing all the three-hundred hives and tightening their straps. Then the forklift drivers loaded them onto the flat beds, where the other team shifted them into place and strapped them down to the trucks. Huge flat beds carrying hundreds of hives was one of the most spectacular things I had ever seen and they were now ready for the ten hour drive down south. There was no way I could sleep with the excitment of the past week and the thought of the next couple of days.
We drove through the night, with little stops until we reached another dump site. On arrival, I could see the mountains of manuka opposite the clearing where we were to distribute our hives. A huge ravine seperated us and the mountains hundreds of feet below. Before the afternoon heat, we quickly unloaded all the pallets and re-opened the hives. With the bees free to fly through the day, we went back to our temporary accommodation, to sleep and relax until the next day.
Early morning, around 4am, I and the others rushed around the hundreds of colonies and once again closed their entrances and checked that they were tightly strapped down. Then we were instructed to strap groups of three pallets together with provided straps before the main operation took place. With everything prepared and sunlight just beginning to rise over the top of the mountains, we heard a whirring sound approaching. With the warm sun burning through the mist, we saw the helicopters coming towards us. The noise and the wind from their propellers covered us, kicking up dust and grit as they landed. With no other way into the mountain, the hives were going to have to be flown in. As the mist was lifting, some of our team were flown out and dropped off into different areas of the mountain.
The four helicopters then took turns to hovver overhead dangling an eighty foot chord to which we attached the strapped hives, to be distributed into the mountains. At each site, the hives were unhooked by the ground team and opened up. With the operation completed, we travelled back up north to repeat the process another two times until we had successfully moved all twelve hundred colonies down south and into the mountains. Here they remained for the next six weeks while the manuka was in bloom.
During that time, we stayed up north working on the remaining thousand or so colonies. Although these colonies were not strong enough to be worth moving to the manuka, they were perfectly capable of working the other “bush” flora around the surrounding area. Emma and I worked hard rearing queens and creating nucleuses, and joined in to help the boys working the other colonies too. The days were hot and I was starting to really feel the summer heat. I thought working in the heat of a Cornwall summer could be challenging, but this was another level. Temperatures on an average day were 27-30 degrees celcius. I was drowning in my suit.
New Zealand’s strict biosecurity meant that I was unable to bring my own suit from home I hadn’t considered what my new temporary suit would be like, but never expected it to be a thicker material than my own Sheriff suit! My first suit in New Zealand was old and tattered one with loose fitting cuffs. There were even splits in my veil where the sun had made the plastic brittle. I felt very vulnerable and was happy to hear that I would soon be provided with a newer suit. At first I was blown away by its bright neon pink colour, but then slightly horrified at the even thicker material than the last suit! I found myself comparing it to my Sheriff suit at home. It was not too disimilar with a ribbed hood, although this hood was much larger and stood above and around my head rather than touch it. This was nice as air passed in and around my head, cooling me. There was only one hive tool pocket, which had me juggling at times, and the elasticated ankle cuffs meant I had to remove my boots each time I put it on or removed it. It was mainly the small things I missed, such as the thumb loops and velcro wrists.
Anyway, by the end of my stay I managed to squeeze in a few days helping to bring the hives back in from the mountains before I had to leave. Fully expecting to experience beekeeping as I had never before, I had no idea just how incredible my time in New Zealand would be and how different the beekeeping. I believe the company brought in around twenty tonnes of manuka honey that year, not including the bush honey from the north. This is an unthinkable amount of honey compared to what I’m used to at home and yet I know they are aiming to expand!
My time in New Zealand has really opened my eyes to the diversity of beekeeping, and although we don’t have the same opportunities here at home, in relation to manuka, it has highlighted the need for me to focus on our strengths which are personal to our business. The experience I have gained has encouraged me to think big and push ourselves in order to expand. Already this 2019 season, we have produced more queens and made more honey. This is due to the strength of our new rearing sites, having pulled through the winter with more mini nucs than ever before, and the exceptional weather which enabled us to fulfil our potential. We are now looking to improve the profile of our business and find new markets for our produce. I’m excited to continue building our business and honing our skills for future years to come.
I’m hugely thankful for the opportunity I had to experience beekeeping abroad, and would highly recommend others to take such oppotunities to expand their knowledge and gain friendships within their careers.