Pinnacle

As far as I know it was all Zespri funded research which means they’ll keep it to themselves. If it is the way to go, we’ll see it reflected in their pollination advice - I haven’t heard anything yet but they usually have pollination meetings in spring

@Dennis Crowley that’s interesting thanks - do you know whether honeybees harvest significant nectar from red clover? Or only white? Thanks

Presumably if they chase the market with one of the leptospermuns we don’t have, we should be able to import it and play them at their own game. afterall, we’ve imported most of our horticultural crops. and plenty of countries have imported our Manuka. 😁

Adam I think you and I are on the same side here. i wouldn’t say no cause for alarm exactly - but this should be bread and butter to marketers. Even if (and its a big IF) NZ manages to get Manuka trademarked in important markets, the aussies won’t lie down and go away. They’ll either do their own research and promote their product as “better” than Manuka or they’ll switch the game to another honey. Ive already voted yes to the honey levy and I’m comfortable with a proportion of that levy being spent on marketing. I expect whoever is spending it though to work their balls off for it like I do getting the honey produced in the first place. Keeping Manuka in first position globally is going to take some serious work! Defending it against all comers is such a basic part of the equation to me it barely rates a mention. More important is improving and growing the story, keeping ahead of the chasers. And of course developing new unique NZ honey market positions so we’re not so reliant and frightened of Manuka

Adam, you’re the marketing guy. i would have thought a NZ press release sent to the right places outlining the reasons why NZ moved away from these three markers for Manuka i.e. ease of adulteration, availability of adulterants, past examples of adulteration and the fact DHA is in sunscreen, should be enough to counter this press release. i don’t see anything that alarming here, NZ is better to forge ahead and take the high ground. I’m sure as a marketer you would be well equipped to have the above discussion with your customers? cheers

Hi Rachel, yes it it is possible, but I would say it won’t be “easy”. tristan makes a lot of good points. You need to cosy up to either a local extractor or possibly a local bee club. There are some minor rules to follow re getting ready to sell on local market, everything is doable if you are prepared to invest a little time. i would expect 2 boxes of honey a year per hive, say 30kg. Some year you might get 2 or 3 times that, some years you might get none. Tristans comment on ruining a perfectly good hobby is also a good one. Once you have a bunch of hives you’re going to have a lot of work to do. And you will have to fit it around everything else. One of the big problems you will face is getting home at the end of a long day as a dairy farmer or vet and you won’t be able to ignore the hives - you will have to suck it up and go work them when you’re tired. When I was busy doing it part time I learned to put new queens in while it was raining, put supers on hives in the dark etc. make sure you know what you’re getting into. It can be easy to spend half an hour on a couple hives and then multiply that out and think yeah I can get a heap more. It’s not always as easy as that! Good luck with it

Yes it’s bacteriostatic - but my understanding (and no doubt someone will jump on me if I am wrong) - is that honey has the potential to have bacteria essentially “stored” in it that could later cause an issue once diluted (dissolved in a drink or spread on toast for instance). So pasteurisation would deal to these bacteria. Again my understanding, is that is why unprocessed honey is not recommended for infants or those with compromised immune systems. The risk to the general population with functioning immune systems is low, but higher for those that may not be able to reflectively able to deal with incoming bacteria

Dennis your question is a good one and I’ve commented on it elsewhere - I’ve played a lot with formic and the way the hives generally bounce back afterwards is quite noticeable. They just seem “healthier” I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m not sure how to get some measurement around it, but to me it is quite noticeable - these acids are likely positively affecting the hives in some other way. and I’m not one to readily say this stuff without some hard evidence, but in this case, over a few years, I’ve consistently noticed it - so to my mind there is almost certainly something else going on here

There’s a line of thought out there (I’m not defending it) that heating above hive temp will destroy some of the good bits - enzymes or other heat sensitive compounds - which then somehow makes the honey “less healthy” of course pasteurisation also destroys bad bacteria but these customers don’t seem to be worried about that?

When I get asked for raw honey I sell them comb honey. Easiest to explain to them, zero processing, they’re happy and don’t seem to mind the extr cost.

I like those mite monitoring things too they’re what I use now 👍🏻

No sorry. I like straps. They’re cheap and stop hives from falling over.

My hives are strapped and I let sheep graze right up to them, no fencing, saves trimming or spraying. cattle are a different matter!

Use an umbrella, once you get used to it you can crouch down a certain way and let it lean against you to shelter what you’re working on. Its a pain and the bees won’t thank you for it, but sometime a you just gotta do what ya gotta do

Zero effect for me on spring buildup. I have noticed a substantial effect when using formic acid, depending on timing. Haven’t decided yet on the answer to your second question - I have some data on this but need to analyse it a bit harder. Cheers