Beekeeper Dencio Lucando Jnr and shed supervisor Samu Kubunavanua load up. Photo / Stuart Munro
From a few hives on a remote sheep station, Whanganui-based business Settlers Honey has grown to employ 50 staff who work 10,000 hives across the North Island.
The company had 64 of its hives stolen last winter - but managed to get them back. And some of its staff members are more well known as members of the Ngamatapouri rugby team.
The Settlers Honey brand started in 2012, business development manager Bryn Hudson said. The first hives were on owner Henry Matthews' 9000ha Makowhai Station at the north end of the Waitotara Valley.
The station has a lot of manuka scrubland and honey from its flowers fetches high prices as an external medicine and as a "superfood".
The boom prices have allowed the business to expand.
It's high risk for the landowner because, if you have a bad season, we all miss out but,
if you have a good season, we all make a good profit.
It now has a factory and shop in Whanganui's Heads Rd, an extraction plant in the Waitotara Valley and hive bases in Opotiki and Patea.
The Settlers hives are spread from the Coromandel down the east coast to Opotiki, Wairoa and the Wairarapa. On this side of the island they are around Whanganui and Taranaki and up into parts of southern Waikato and the King Country.
The hives are moved to areas with manuka in summer when it is in flower. In winter it's more convenient to have them near towns where the beekeepers can visit monthly and feed and check them.
They are given sugar syrup, pollen patties and the Palamountain bee tonic made in Whanganui, which Mr Hudson said worked well. But the bees also need to be able to find their own food.
"You never want to put your bees in any area where their main source of food is from supplement. It's hard to find places to overwinter them, especially around Whanganui - because there are bees all over the place," Mr Hudson said.
Placing the hives
Settlers hives are on land owned by Mr Matthews, and on dairy farms around South Taranaki and Whanganui, and near Opotiki.
The company has five people whose job is to talk to landowners and find places for the hives. Last season landowners were offered $100 to host each hive from Labour Weekend to about March, or they were offered a percentage of the profit - 20 per cent for a five-year agreement and 30 per cent for a 10-year agreement. In the next season those arrangements will be reviewed.
At 30 per cent over 10 years, the agreements are almost like joint ventures, Mr Hudson said. A percentage agreement is higher risk than a flat rate, but potentially more profitable.
"It's high risk for the landowner because, if you have a bad season, we all miss out but, if you have a good season, we all make a good profit."
The manuka honey boom has made getting agreements with landowners much more competitive. Settlers' main rivals in that field are Comvita, Tweeddale Apiaries and, for the Taranaki area, Egmont Honey.
Neither of the last two honey seasons have been wonderful. In the season just passed there was a lot of wind on the sunny days, and bees don't like to work in the wind.
The season before that there was sun, but manuka didn't flower much. Some of the best honey recently was collected in the Wairarapa and south Hawke's Bay.
Last winter there were 64 Settlers' hives stolen. Staff "put on their detective hats", asked around and involved police. They got all the hives back.
Since then security has been much tighter, Mr Hudson said. Gates are locked, and a pallet at each site can be tracked by GPS. Lots of the sites are on no exit roads, where farmers have also erected cameras.
Setting standards
The Settlers' hives are all registered and treated to prevent varroa infestations. There is none of the dread disease American Foul Brood. Other beekeepers aren't so careful, and unregistered hives are a worry.
The business uses the Molan Gold Standard to measure the amount of methylglyoxal that makes manuka honey valuable. It's similar to the standards the Government wants to put in place, still being consulted on.
Mr Hudson doesn't anticipate any problems when the standards are in place.
The honey is sold to Wairarapa honey producers Watson & Son wholesale. It is packaged there and either exported or used for the Watsons' medicinal products.
Settlers intends to do its own packaging at its extraction plant in the Waitotara Valley next season. And a medicinal line of its own is also on the cards. It is also looking at planting high-activity manuka cultivars in the Waitotara Valley.
The company has seven farm staff, and extraction plant and manufacturing and administrative staff. It has truck drivers and digger operators and 25 beekeepers.
Ten of those are from the Philippines, armed with theoretical knowledge and a certificate.
Other beekeepers are trained in a buddy system, and some are also rugby players.
Work has to come before rugby for them, Mr Hudson said - but the owner Mr Matthews is very keen on rugby and the whole staff are likely to turn up when the Ngamatapouri rugby team has a game.
Beekeeping is a job that appeals to lots of people, but Mr Hudson said it's also hard physical work.
Many have predicted the boom in manuka honey will turn into a bust.
Mr Hudson thinks as long as there is proven medicinal benefit that won't happen.
He wouldn't say how profitable the company was, only: "We've had two bad seasons and we're still going and expanding, so things can't be too bad."