Marcus Van Boxel didn't put beekeeping on his career list when he headed to Otago University to acquire a
commerce degree in Marketing Management. Yet in a roundabout way signs pointed him in that direction even before he knew it.
His hapu is Ngai Tawake Kite Takutai Moana whose original home base is Rewa's Village opposite the Stone Store. His mother and grandmother are from Rawhiti and his father is Dutch. He became an exchange student to Utsunomiya north of Tokyo when he was at Auckland's Kings College and eventually went back there to teach English for five years and to marry Ayako. Imagine how many different taste experiences he'd had by that
time and some of it, slowly and surely, was being ingrained into his consciousness.
When they came back toNewZealand in 2006 Marcus got a job asaquality inspector of export flower bulbs and at the Pukekohe market he met an old man who was the first to be instrumental in setting him on his present path.
''He was selling honey and he was passionate about it and that's what got me interested.''
A move to Tauranga saw him as an assistant plant breeder, at least until the global recession hit and he got that mythical piece of pink paper. That was the second catalyst for moving into Apis Mellifera. He had to earn a living. He started doing work experience withacommercial beekeeping company in Kaitaia and since commuting wasn't viable it made more sense to move there.Nowhome is in Haruru Falls-and the street number of his house is 87b, get it? Sweet, you might say.
Conventional beekeeping methods didn't appeal to him, he didn't like the thought of killing the queen each year and he was against the use of pesticides to rid the hives of the pervasive varroa mite. He wanted his hives to mimic nature as closely as possible.
''My method means you don't clip the wings of the queen or re-queen, kill her. It wasaconscious, ethical, decision. You have a beautiful queen so why would you want to destroy her? The bees can determine when the queen can be replaced.''
During his first year he used essential oils to try to counteract varroa mite but he 'buttoned off' from that and now, intriguingly, shakes icing sugar over the top of the hives.
''I putamesh over the top of the hive,aboard underneath, and then shake the icing sugar to dowse the bees. It doesn't harm them and the mites fall off.''
He's the first to concede it doesn't kill the mite but he reasons sugar is better than using lethal chemicals and, as he points out, varroa mites-as inother countries-are growing a significant resistance to chemical control. Other methods simply have to be found.
''I have hadamulti-residue test done on the honey and I know I'm not using anything that's not natural. The test analyses up to 228 different chemicals that could be in the honey.''
Marcus is now in his third winter of beekeeping and has adopted an international beekeeping standard
called Demeter,awholly biodynamic methodology by which the bees produce.
Moreover, he leases a lemon orchard which gives him more control over his required organic quality standards and he's diversifying. Rawhiti Manuka Honi Limited products include Manuka Honey, of course, and he and Ayako
(who is an aromatherapist) have added natural cough tablets-very good for pregnant women- acid honey cough drops for kiddies, ginger beer (made with Manuka Honey 10+) bees wax candles and soaps. Unsurprisingly, given his marketing background, he designs all their own labels.
So where were we? Ah yes.Acity lad withaprivate school education becomes a teacher of English in Japan
turned Far North beekeeper selling ethically pure product at the Kerikeri farmers' market. It's not what you'd call a direct path toacareer but to Marcus Van Boxel it's perfectly natural.
Food for thought
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