New Zealand Beekeeping
European
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) were first introduced into New Zealand in
1839. With a range of native flora found nowhere else in the World, plus a
number of introduced plants that grow prolifically in New Zealand's temperate
climate, our honeybees create honeys that are the very distillation of New
Zealand's essential ancient Gondwanaland origins.
These
honeys cover a huge range of flavour types and properties. From mild to very
strong flavoured, light to dark coloured, delicately perfumed to pungent and
even honeys with significant antibacterial properties.
Statistics
Today, New Zealand has
320,000 beehives
that produce an average annual crop of 10,600 tonnes of honey. These hives
are owned by nearly 5,000 beekeepers and are spread over 22,000 apiaries (sites
where beehives are kept). The greater number of these beekeepers are hobbyists
with 88.3% of them owning an average of only 5 hives. The remaining 11.7%
of beekeepers are commercial and semi commercial operators managing an average
of 513 hives each.
Pollination
Over 1/3rd of New Zealand's beehives are moved
into pollination of commercial crops each year. This includes kiwifruit, apples,
pears, apricots, small seeds and pastoral pollination. It is estimated that
the value of pollination from beekeeping is worth around NZ$1-2 billion annually
to the New Zealand economy. The largest portion of this is the pollination
of clover in pastures, where the clover provides a nitrogen fixing benefit.
Live Bees
New Zealand provides both package bees and queen
bees for export. This trade started with the export of queen bees to Canada
in the late '60s and has grown to where large quantities of exports of queen
bees and packages are sent to many countries around the World.
Most of New Zealand's beestock is "Italian"strain (Apis mellifera
ligustica) but in many areas "English Black" (Apis mellifera
mellifera) bees are endemic.
Other Hive Products
A range of other hive products are produced in
New Zealand. Pollen and Propolis are the two most important ones. Others are
Royal Jelly and Bee Venom.
Few Bee Diseases
It is fortunate that during the early introductions
of honeybees to New Zealand, few of the World's major bee diseases accompanied
them. Today New Zealand's isolation and agricultural quarantine requirements
help to perpetuate this situation, but as shown by the discovery of Varroa
mites in New Zealand in April 2000, we are not immune to the increasing spread
and globalization of pests and diseases Worldwide.
The
current lack of European Foulbrood and a nationwide Management Strategy for
American Foulbrood is the reason that the feeding of antibiotics for these
bacterial brood diseases is illegal in New Zealand, unlike most other major
honey producing countries where this is routine.
As a developed country, but with a small population, New Zealand has the advantage
of both large areas of natural flora, plus modern, sanitary extracting and
processing plant and equipment.
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© 1999
Airborne Honey Ltd
