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At last, the pressures of COVID 19 are (almost) over! We have the noticed that most of the people around us seem to have the same positive attitude, accomplishing their day-by-day duties, happy again to breathe freely, without wearing masks. Our little winged friends have continued to light-heartedly work, following the season and chasing the bloom. On the back of this positivity, honey sales have grown which is leaving us optimistic that, after struggling for a while, this will be a year of breakthrough!
Each year, New Zealand beekeepers are experiencing more difficulties to manage their businesses. This is due to multiple reasons: varroa mites becoming resistant to the miticides, climate changes messing up the natural cycle of the seasons and, last but not the least, a lack of qualified staff. This season has been very tough for us because of a considerable loss of bee colonies, but thanks to a favourable, mild Spring and dry Summer, we managed to get through quite well, with a very good Mānuka yield and happy bees at the end of the Autumn. Regionally, our northern hives struggled with production as a result of the persistent rain we had in September and October. Fortunately, we were able to amply compensate this with a great performance in Waitomo and Taihape. It gives us great satisfaction to be rewarded with an average production per beehive of 35kg. Whilst this is not our record, it is something we are proud of. Our strategy has been actively splitting honey boxes throughout the season to restore last year’s losses and sacrificing local honey production in exchange for a better quality and quantity of bees.
Now I would like to introduce you briefly to another bee-product that you might have already seen on the shelf of the pharmacy, but you don’t really know what to do with it: the propolis! Do you know what it is and its properties? We should make clear that the propolis is not produced by the bees but collected by them from the trees (like the honey, by the way. The bees turn the plant nectar into honey but they don’t actually produce it. Have you ever thought about that!). The propolis is a resin collected from the buds of some trees like poplar, oak, pines, alder, and some other native trees. The bees use it as a sealing cement to protect their hive against the rainfall, the drought, the wind and to sterilize their nest to prevent the spreading of harmful bacteria and viruses. They also can mummify predators (for example a mouse, a hornet or wasps) that try to attack the colony. Propolis has been used as a natural medicine for 5,000 years, beginning with Egyptian civilization. It is one of the most effective natural antibiotics. It is commonly used to protect wounds against infections, and to cure throat inflammation (if you are curious, have a read of this page https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2018/2035820/). The most common method to extract propolis is to dissolve it into the ethyl alcohol, but there are other formulations which are more suitable to use on the kids.
Another fun fact, is that creaming honey avoids granulation. Granulation is a natural process that occurs when honey has been stored for a long time. I would like to point out that the granulation is not an indicator of a low quality of the product – on the contrary, it indicates that the honey hasn’t been overheated. Honey exposed to a thermal treatment can lose nutrients, especially vitamins and have a high level of a toxic compound called HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural). Our aim is to feed you with our delicious product, and we want you to relish the taste and the scent of our native wild flowers!
As we look ahead to a new season, we want to thank all those who have continued to support us, particularly our landowners. It has been a trying few years in the honey industry but we are excited to see changes and are grateful to be able to do what we love in this beautiful place – Aotearoa!
Mario Bernasconi
Whare Honey Ltd Partnership
811 Arapuni Road
RD2, Parawera
Te Awamutu 3872
P 07 872 7774
E leonard@wharehoney.co.nz
M 027 571 2216