Low honey harvest expected as North Island beekeepers grapple with storm effects

Recent storms have blocked roads, preventing beekeepers from reaching their hives. Photo / 123rf

By Monique Steele of RNZ

Beekeepers blocked from getting to their hives mid-harvest due to roads closed by recent storms are expecting a lighter and later honey harvest this year.

Storms across the upper North Island in mid-January caused widespread slips that shut roads and state highways, particularly in Bay of Plenty and the East Coast.

Barry Foster, an industry stalwart and semi-retired beekeeper of Tairāwhiti, said harvest was one of the busiest times of the year, but it was interrupted by the storms.

“The result is that numbers of beekeepers around the district have hives that they can’t access at the moment because of the lack of roads.”

Foster said one beekeeper’s hives, truck and loader were still stuck in the Waioweka Gorge, which remained closed following slips.

“He needs this gear, and he needs to access his hives to treat them for varroa mite, and other things.

“Thankfully, he’d taken his honey off them, but he can’t access important vehicles to do the rest of his 2000-odd boxes of honey he’s got to take off.”

Foster said the geology of the East Coast was fragile and the area had suffered a lot of slips, particularly north of Tolaga Bay.

“Te Araroa has been badly affected; it’s been cut off at the top of the East Cape.

“Roads are blocked from slips, so it’s having a multiplying effect.”

He said access was compromised for some affected beekeepers whose hives were found near wild mānuka crops in remote backcountry.

“It’s not just us that are affected, it’s farmers and beekeepers who can’t access their hives and do the things that they need to do in a timely manner, like harvest honey and control of bee mite, the varroa mite.”

He said moisture was a challenge in the hive.

“Bees need sun and warmth, and plants need the same to produce nectar and moisture, too, but not too much moisture.

“Those are the combinations, so if you get a deluge, it’s affecting the whole linked ecosystem.”

Bad weather hits national honey harvest

Karin Kos, chief executive of Apiculture New Zealand.

Karin Koss, chief executive of industry group Apiculture New Zealand, said national honey production was down this year.

“Harvest started well, but the recent bad weather has seen the harvest fall short of early expectations.”

Honey extraction business Gielen Family Farm of Motukarara in Banks Peninsula had a late harvest last year and this year, too.

Co-owner Stacey Gielen said the weather delayed harvest into late December.

“Our first job was just after Christmas. My customer in Ashburton; she always has really strong, really healthy hives,” she said.

“It’s been really great to see how much honey she brought in, because we certainly don’t see any sort of volume like that at home at the moment.”

Gielen said it was hard to say how the remainder of the season would go.

“If the weather’s going to carry on like that, I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of honey to go about for just local honey producers.”

Foster said many in the honey industry were cash-strapped after a few tough years of low honey sales.

But he said higher demand for pollination services from the booming horticulture sector was helping offset this.

- RNZ