Hobby beekeeper lives the sweet life

BUZZING: Gerald Atkinson says edible honey is going up in price because it is becoming a scarce product.. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Gerald Atkinson, semi-retired, has four beehives on his lifestyle block in Carterton, which is "about average for a hobby beekeeper".

The part-time business management tutor began his beekeeping adventure eight years ago and is the convener of the Wairarapa Hobby Beekeepers' Club.

A "minimalist beekeeper", he looks at his hives weekly and opens them monthly.

"You can tell a lot just by looking at them. I think the less you disturb them, the more honey they will make."

He said he bought his hives with the idea of producing honey commercially.

"I had a property with about 100ha of manuka so I joined the local bee club to learn how to be a beekeeper."

But he has stuck to being a hobbyist and said he was "constantly learning from the bees".

He said a lot of people got into hobby beekeeping to "get back to nature". No chemical intervention was allowed "so it's very natural" - apart from varroa mite control - "it's totally chemical free".

BUZZING: Gerald Atkinson says edible honey is going up in price because it is becoming a scarce product.. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Hobby beekeepers "try as hard as possible to leave sufficient honey for the bees' needs", while in commercial beekeeping "bees are there to make honey and not eat the honey".

In commercial hives, everything the bees make - honey, wax and propolis - is harvested and the bees are fed sugar syrup to keep them active and away from the honey.

Each hive has about 100,000 bees, producing about 40kg of honey and every apiary in New Zealand is registered and located with a GPS number.

The bees build wax on plastic frames in hexagons, the "most efficient shape", filling them with brood or honey, and the propolis is used to fill holes and fix imperfections in the hive.

Because of tutin, a native New Zealand toxin that is sometimes found in honey, strict regulations are in place for selling honey, which has to be tested before being sold.

Tutin does not affect bees but is dangerous to humans and grazing animals.

Mr Atkinson would have his honey tested only if he had more than he could eat, bake with, or give away.

BUZZING: Gerald Atkinson says edible honey is going up in price because it is becoming a scarce product.. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

To make the honey, the bees ingest water and pollen, churn it around then spit it out. "They don't need my help to make honey, but they need my help to provide an environment in which they can make honey."

Mr Atkinson said while hive numbers were growing in Wairarapa, 99 per cent of the commercially produced manuka honey was going into pharmaceutical usage and exports. "Edible honey is going up in price because it's becoming a scarce product."

There were three kinds of bees: queens, which are usually replaced every year in commercial hives; drones, which are "only useful for mating with the queen"; and worker bees, which guard and clean the hive, feed the brood and collect pollen.

Bees live for three weeks but the queens "are a different animal altogether" and live for five years.

A virgin queen will fly 30km to mate with as many drones from other hives as she can in a short period of time.

Then she flies back to her hive and lay 1500 eggs a day for the next five years.

She would choose the number of eggs to be fertilised and they would become workers, while unfertilised eggs would become drones.

Mr Atkinson said the bees' buzzing sound came from their breathing holes.

It would take about 10,000 bee stings to kill most people.

"Bees don't want to sting you. That's not their purpose in life," said Mr Atkinson, who has been stung "hundreds of times".

After a bee sting, the stinger that was left in the victim gave off a pheromone that attracted more bees "so instead of being stung once you may be stung hundreds of times". He said two ways to avoid being stung by bees were to submerge in water or go into a dark room.

Mr Atkinson said his orchard benefited from the hives as bees were a critical part of the pollination process.

He said the hobby was not cheap - one hive cost between $250 and $300. He advised anyone interested in hobby beekeeping to join the Wairarapa Hobby Beekeepers' Club, which cost $10 per year to be a member. Joining the club was "almost compulsory" to keep up with compliances.

The club held meetings on the second Sunday of each month at a different location each time, to allow members to see all sorts of apiary management and beekeeping styles.

"In a single year you'd be exposed to what you need to know. It's a matter of observing what the insects are up to," he said.