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Nice. ETA Otira in February for a Rata show .... Big Hands is shouting!

I had a very pleasant day with @Colorado_Chris today. We started off early ish with a 10 km walk along the Manawatu river. This trip included a tour of the esplanade and a visit to the Wildbase centre (Massey hospital for native animals). At Wildbase we managed to get a great viewing of Big Daddy the male tuatara. He is over 600mm long. We also saw one of his babies about 100mm long. Chris had a lot of questions about the flora along the river bank and in the Esplanade. Which I did my best to answer. We then went out to Waireka Honey Centre where Kate Smith (the owne

Just because it is Organic does'nt mean it is safe . Of course ..... cropping farmers export , not directly under a farm brand, but all the produce goes into the pool for the world to pick and choose from . Down the road from here 'Gladfields' do a lot of malting barley . Last week we were subjected to an Asure quality farm audit ..... two hours of questioning about our farming practices .... chemicals usage, drench and fertiliser usage. We had one non compliance ...... a broken cattle yard rail. Apparently a sucessful audit means we ar eligable for a coupe of cents extra on

Thank you so very much for hosting me at your hives yesterday Alastair, I had a spectacular time inspecting, testing, and learning about the the varroa treatments you and James are experimenting with. I'm excited now for my upcoming visit with Trevor in Palmerston North as well, especially with the nearby honey center which we unfortunately couldn't make it to yesterday in Puhoi. James I would love to learn more about your AFB sniffing dog when I get to the South Island, I have a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever back home that I had previously planned to train simil

The beauty of only having 320 hives James. ? . Actually what we were doing, this is the first post OA strip visit to an apiary. Assessing damage and rectifying as much as possible, basically setting up the site to get the most honey possible, as a site, rather than individual hives. Other thing, been an AFB issue in the area with a nearby apiary on one side of me having rob outs, and an apiary on the other side of me having rob outs. ?. So an AFB check was also done, nothing found (phew), but will have to keep a close eye on these. I mentioned your AFB sniffer

Met up with Chris today, he was not much interested in the coffee but definately wanted to get dirty in some hives. For a scientist (LOL) he is very practical I was able to trust him working his own hives and he speeded up my day. But seriously, he has a great depth of knowledge in certain bee related areas, he shared a bit with me today, and I'll be back in touch with him in the future if there are any difficult issues I need answers on that are in his field. He is keenly looking forward to meeting Trevor and James, I would highly recommend him to anyone e

Aah, there you are Adam. You are right ..... a couple of hundy K will not go a long way in a marketing budget .... but I guess what it shows is that those who walked away demonstrated in doing so that they had no understanding and no faith in what is the back bone of the industry. Which is a shame because they obviously had no grasp of the potential that is out there. Manuka generates some high prices, but it is only a small percentage of the crop. I had some Singaporeans here the other day. They were looking to buy honey . They were fixated on Manuka. It's all t

Totally agree Manfred. Good products will sell themselves. Manuka will always sell itself. Build the brand and the competition is left behind. $7.5 mill to push New Zealand Honey on the world market as the The Honey to be seen eating would possibly benefit a lot more struggling business's and the potential return on the investment ten fold that of investing in just one honey.

I think Bruce's email is symptomatic of the country at the moment. The present government seems to have lost track of just who it is who is creating the wealth of the country . Which is a shame because there are so many good ideas and positivety out there . Perhaps we have been spoon fed for too long and lost faith in our abilities to make great things happen. The Co op idea may have taken a backwards step .... but that step back will give us a wider view of where we need to be headed and a better view of the summit.

? Ok .. just forward her this and the world will be your oyster .

No doubt .... We all have 20/20 hindsight. Now I 'aint begrudging the fact that the Gvt donated quite a few million to trademarking one of our honeys ...... but as I sit in the glow of the firelight I ponder the ways of the politicians. Manuka is the flavour of the decade and sells itself ... but the fact of the matter is there are thousands of tonnes of 'other' high quality honeys languishing in sheds and when we try to raise a couple hundy K to float a marketing company .....nobody wants a bar of it. I guess it's all about shine and priority. Meanwhi

Good call

I decided not to look at mine .

Hmmm ..... I think I'd shoot the pony, dip the ladies in the honey and bury the horn .......

well at least you got kiwi saver ..... my kiwi saver was my bee operation ..... ?