Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Close hives sting locals into action

By Laurel Stowell
Whanganui Chronicle·
19 Jun, 2016 09:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

People bringing their hives out of the manuka and putting them "every which way" closer to town are upsetting established beekeepers, Neil Farrer says.

He keeps a few bees himself, and was speaking for others unwilling to be named.

"We don't want to pull other beekeepers down, because we're all very, very good friends when it comes to beekeeping," another Whanganui beekeeper said.

The move of many hives out of the backblocks and closer to town for the winter has been a sore point, much talked about at bee club meetings.

A new Whanganui District Council by-law says hives should be 40m from property boundaries. Mr Farrer said people were putting them close to fences for easier access.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Having too many hives for an area is bad for everyone. If there is not enough food the bees can starve and die. When that happens, bees from stronger hives will raid their honey, and can carry devastating diseases like American foulbrood back to healthy hives.

If forage is very scarce, bees will harvest food from less preferred plants such as the native tutu. Mr Farrer said that can result in people being poisoned.

"The tutu flower, pollen and nectar are perfectly all right for bees. But passionvine hoppers burrow into the stem and feed on the pith and sap. They exude a droplet of honeydew from their rear end. It's all right for bees but honey made by them is poisonous to any mammal."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Three people who ate comb honey poisoned with the tutu toxin, tutin, became desperately ill in the Coromandel in 2008. There were previous cases in 1991 and 1974, and deaths in the 1890s. These days all honey is tested for tutin before packing.

There is tutu in the Whanganui region, and tutin in honey is a risk with the kind of bee overcrowding on the Whanganui River Rd last summer. It's particularly likely when honey is harvested in January after a long, hot summer.

Bees harvest nectar and pollen for the lucrative manuka honey during the summer flowering season. By winter the flowers have gone and beekeepers bring their hives closer to where they live, to look after them during the winter months. Some will leave them enough honey to eat over winter and not have to do much else. But raw manuka honey is worth as much as $60 a kilo. Beekeepers who take and sell all of it feed their bees on sugar through the winter.

The bees will also forage for their own food on still days with highs of 18-20C. The number of beehives in New Zealand has doubled in the last five years, on the back of the manuka honey gold rush. There are many more hives to come to town and some have been put too close to places where long-established beekeepers have their own permanent hives.

Beekeepers new to the area should be careful and responsible about where they put hives, Mr Farrer said. There may be hives belonging to others nearby, but out of sight.

Farmers asked for permission to have hives on their land should be aware no honey gets made in winter and there will be few flowers to pollinate until spring.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

'Surprising' lack of property value growth in Whanganui region

Premium
OpinionKevin Page

Kevin Page: Facing fears, finding humour and relief in medical journey

Whanganui Chronicle

Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

'Surprising' lack of property value growth in Whanganui region
Whanganui Chronicle

'Surprising' lack of property value growth in Whanganui region

However, Pātea has a 4% increase in average property value in the past six months.

14 Jul 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
 Kevin Page: Facing fears, finding humour and relief in medical journey
Kevin Page
OpinionKevin Page

Kevin Page: Facing fears, finding humour and relief in medical journey

14 Jul 05:00 PM
Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings
Whanganui Chronicle

Council officers back deconstructing St George's buildings

14 Jul 04:59 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP