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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JULY 2017
WE DON’T KNOW HOW LUCKY WE ARE OUT AND ABOUT Jody Mitchell, Kaimai Range Honey
Having the right weather is a big thing in beekeeping. Although we think this season has been a challenging one for us in New Zealand, the past five years have been relatively straightforward.
Many new beekeepers have entered the industry over this time, have bought reasonably good hives and have been getting high-value honey, often in spite of anything they have done themselves, as any honey has been easy to sell until now. beekeepers. Statements like, “it’s the easiest money I ever made” have been heard, often over beers from a new beekeeper who has another income stream. Every man and his dog have rushed to the industry in the hope of gold and glory. With an attitude where making money is the prime motivation and bee welfare is way down the list, many forget that if their hives aren’t in good condition, neither will their bank balance be. Things might seem easy until trouble strikes—cold, wet springs, poor matings, varroa, lack of good pollen and nectar sources, farming practices not conducive to beekeeping, difficulties finding good sites, compliance costs, rain and more rain. Welcome to the world of the Great British Beekeeper for the last decade. A little over a century ago, in 1900, there were a million beehives in the United Kingdom. But now, a drastic decline of 73% has numbers at just 270,000 hives, with UK beekeepers only producing about 14% of the honey their domestic market consumes, compared with a European average of around 60% production for domestic consumption. Apprenticeship schemes have been started in recent years to encourage young people to become beekeepers. The average age of a UK bee farmer is now 66 years old, with fewer than 100 of the 638 commercial bee farmers working bees full time in the industry. Their commercial beehive numbers are declining fast, putting their industry and its bees under threat, with 70 different crops dependent on bees and bumblebees for pollination. There are many reasons for this decline, but the The danger here is that many with little experience believe they are awesome
Ralph Mitchell, Robin Ratcliffe and Murray McGregor.
an actual apiary site, we didn’t see honey bees flying around. So, I will give a rundown of a few highlights from our trip regarding bees. England First, I got to judge a honey competition at the Royal Three Counties Show, which is one of the largest remaining agricultural shows left in England, and met a lot of beekeepers. We also got to catch up with the lovely Phoebe Lamb, who first came to us on the UK bee apprentice scheme in 2015 and again in spring/summer 2016–17. Isle of Man (IOM) We were invited to stay with long-time friend Robin Ratcliffe out on the gorgeous Isle of Man. The IOM has only 80,000 permanent residents and over 80 registered beekeepers, with about 800 hives. It is one of the few
changing weather, including diseases and the Varroa destructor parasite, alongside increased land use and chemicals used in farming, have decimated the population of British honey bees, and wild honey bees have almost disappeared. Weather and farming practices have had a big impact over the last decade especially—it has been colder and wetter than the previous decade. One of the problems we heard about that is farmers are now producing silage instead of hay. They cut the grass several times a year, before any flowers get a chance to open in the fields, so there is nothing for the bees. In the past, a good variety of flowers grew in the pastures and the bees would get to utilise them, then at the end of the season the farmers would cut it once to make hay. In June/July 2016 we were based in Cornwall, and also got to check out hives in Norway, England, Isle of Man and Scotland. Regardless of where we went, unless you were close to
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