Organic honey producers Shayne and Elizabeth Mackenzie. Photo / RNZ, Sally Round
By Sally Round of RNZ
A honey shed on a hill is buzzing with the sound of honey flowing into jars as the bees take a hard-earned rest from honey-making.
RNZ’s Country Life meets Shayne and Elizabeth Mackenzie, whose organic honey is produced from hives scattered over remote parts of the northern Coromandel Peninsula.
Shayne Mackenzie has just wrapped up queen rearing for the season - a tricky job, but one that’s vital to keep his organic honey operation humming in the far reaches of the peninsula.
“Timing’s everything,” he said.
“Big, long, sunny days is what you want when those queens come out.”
To keep moving ahead and to deal with all the stresses on hives these days, healthy queens for the next season were crucial, he said.
“Often the queen will fail at a bad time, and then you’ll end up with a drone-laying hive [...] pretty much it’s a death sentence for them.
“There’s a whole lot of male bees just stuck in the cells, really, because if they get too weak and there’s not enough help to get out, that’s what happens.”
It was early autumn when Country Life dropped into the Mackenzies’ honey shed not far from Colville, and with the honey harvest and queen-rearing over, there was still plenty to do.
Shayne and his wife and business partner, Elizabeth, were filling jars and packing them into boxes stamped with the Woodland’s Organic Honey label, to be sent off to honey-lovers in New Zealand, Europe and Asia.
This year, the couple won another two gold medals and one silver at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards for their multifloral and mānuka honey varieties, and they have lately launched their rewarewa and kānuka labels.
The Mackenzies are one of New Zealand’s few organic honey producers who must meet a multitude of requirements to ensure certified organic status.
Shayne and his small team of beekeepers travel around northern parts of the Coromandel to tend the hives scattered over farmland, orchards and land owned by communities, ensuring distance from spraying, regular testing and also ensuring hives aren’t taken out of the area, all subject to audit.
“You have to be a long way from any heavy agriculture or even a large town.
“Leaving honey on the hives, it’s part of the gig, you know, we have to leave food for the bees. That’s a big deal.”
Shayne started in the bee business as a teenager on summer jobs, eventually taking on the company, which started out with one truck and “some pretty old equipment”.
“It’s pretty much 30 years since I first went out with Don Sutherland harvesting, who was the original owner of the bees around here.
“He had some quite vicious bees, and I was quite young, and it didn’t really go that well getting stung. I swelled up pretty bad.
“I’d like to think we’ve tamed the bees a little bit by breeding some slightly kinder ones,” he said, laughing.
The landscape has changed, too.
The Mackenzies are contributing to the diminishing gorse, which the bees have a taste for, by planting 1500 mainly mānuka trees.
Elizabeth met Shayne while working as a shepherd near Port Jackson, further north.
“I’ve, you know, sort of taken over all the marketing, exports, sales, the books, social media.
“When you own your own business, you fill all of those roles.”
So how have the pair weathered turbulent times in the honey industry, with oversupply a particular problem in recent years?
“Well, fortunately, when times were good, we didn’t just buy a Ferrari,” Shayne said.
They have made strategic investments and adapted to market conditions.
“Because I do know that the business can be up and down enormous amounts, like I used to think it could be plus or minus 60% but after the other year [after Cyclone Gabrielle] and we got 8% of the crop, I guess that means you can be plus or minus 92%.
“We just found ways to raise capital and keep going.”
Things are looking more positive, though, Elizabeth added.
“It’s still going to be slow, like the hive numbers have about halved in the last few years, and this year’s national crop is just below average.
“There has not been as much honey produced, so that helps even out the supply and demand, so I guess we just have to get back to a place where there’s more of a level playing field.”
- RNZ