Mark Christensen holds heritage apples which are pollinated by bees from the beekeepers club. Photo / Bevan Conley.
Mark Christensen holds heritage apples which are pollinated by bees from the beekeepers club. Photo / Bevan Conley.
Seven beehives have been moved out of Mark Christensen's Springvale orchard at the request of Whanganui District Council.
The hives belong to the Wanganui Beekeepers' Club and the site has been its main training ground. There were nine hives there in total, and two now remain in the orchard area, with about three others elsewhere.
Council environmental health officer Alison Smith has agreed six hives can stay on the property. She said there have been up to 17 at times this season.
Council asked for the removal, because people in nearby Peakes Rd and Downes Ave have complained about bee spotting on windows, cars and washing. The poo can be hard to remove, especially from clothing.
The removal was agreed to at a meeting with council about two weeks ago, Mr Christensen said.
Two hives remain in the orchard. The other seven have been moved to the Quaker Settlement. Photo / Bevan Conley.
Bee club member Neil Farrer was at the meeting and tried to tell council officers that moving the hives would not solve the problem.
"The real trouble is there's so many hives in the area. Nobody really knows where they all are, and Mark's property is a huge floral source, just about all year round."
Flowers are a magnet to bees, and Mr Farrer feels sure the bees will keep coming.
Under the council's bylaw a 500-700sq m section can have two beehives. Mr Christensen's heritage research orchard is 20,000sq m so he would be entitled to 10 or 20.
The club hives - never more than 10 - have been on the property for about 15 years, and the club would prefer to keep all the teaching hives together.
Complaints about bee poo haven't happened until the past few years.
"What's changed, of course, is all the commercial hives coming close to town," Mr Christensen said.
He's not worried about losing pollination for his orchard, because he thinks bees will keep flying in.
Whether removing seven hives will ease the bee poo problem remains to be seen.
"What we really have to do is wait a year and just see who is right," he said.
Mr Christensen is the founder of the Heritage Food Crops Research Trust. He and a team of volunteers are using his property to research the health benefits of "tangerine" (orange) tomatoes, and the fruit of a seedling apple tree that has high levels of anti-inflammatory compounds.
He and his group have given away thousands of plants and trees to the Whanganui public.
A council bylaw sets out how beehives can be kept on urban properties - not within 3m of a footpath or 10m of a house, and always with a barrier at least 1.8m high directing the bees to fly upward when they leave the hive.
