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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, FEBRUARY 2017
Natasha Thyne, Apiculture New Zealand Management Team BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL BUSINESS
Three months on from the 7.8-magnitude Kaikoura earthquake on 14 November 2016, we report on its ongoing effect on the apiculture industry.
Damaged beehives, bee losses, and difficulty accessing isolated sites are just some of the challenges Upper South Island beekeepers have faced since the November 2016 earthquake. However, the beekeeping community has rallied together to help each other out after the traumatic event. Duncan Storrier from Midlands Apiaries said the nature of the slips in the area meant beekeepers could not reach their sites in Kaikoura and in Clarence, north of Kaikoura. Midlands reached out to their honey suppliers in the worst affected areas. They were able to confirm the people were personally unharmed but had suffered damage to their beekeeping equipment and facilities. A plan was hatched to take a few beekeepers in the Midlands helicopter to the most isolated sites. But there was more to the mission than just checking hives. “Once we’d landed in Kaikoura, we unloaded the pods and luggage compartment of all the nappies and infant formula that we had carried up for the local Plunket.”
Help arrives to an apiary at the top of the Clarence River.
Midlands’ beekeepers were deployed to Waiau to assist some of its other suppliers with road access to stand up their hives. “An interesting change for our team who are used to working on the flat Canterbury Plains,” Mr Storrier said. Daniel Milne of Wild Rose Apiaries was unable to access two-thirds of his sites because of road closures. He was one of the beekeepers taken up in the helicopter. Around 40 per cent of his hives had been tipped over. “Only a handful of hives actually died; however, lots lost strength or the queens were squashed.” Directly after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, Mr Milne, who lives in Kaikoura, said his main priority was making sure he and his family were safe. It wasn’t until the next morning his focus went to his hives, most importantly tending to those in the town and around houses. He said it took around seven days to get all the hives stood back up. After two weeks, it was back to daily beekeeping jobs.
From there, the group visited as many of the most isolated sites as they could. “The power of Mother Nature is staggering. We had whole pallets of four hives tipped over and boxes many metres from the hives. There was just no real pattern to it; you’d see total destruction, then fly over the next spot that had no damage.”
Approaching Kaikoura from the north on the way home. Photos this page: Duncan Storrier.
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