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Date: | Sun, 21 Apr 2019 03:19:52 +0000 |
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New Zealand is the land of milk and honey but things have changed over the last 20 years.
Increase in dairying in the last 10 years has seen scrub plants, gorse and broom removed for more grass causing a loss of valuable pollen.
Many eucalyptus trees have been removed in Canterbury to allow pivot irrigators to work . These tree provided valuable autumn food for bees when clover didn’t produce.
In Taranaki all padlocks (fields) used to be surrounded by hedges: barberry, boxthorn and hawthorn. In the 1970’s you could get two boxes off barberry, another off boxthorn, another three off clover and then winter food when boxthorn flowered again. With the increase in dairying, and rotational grazing, all the hedges have gone replaced by wire fences. Now the wind whistles through the district and it’s no longer viable for commercial beekeeping unless there is natural shelter.
Rivers used to be lined with willow trees a valuable spring source of nectar and pollen.
Greenies have been pushing that natives should line our rivers so in some regions they have been cleared . The first problem after the clearance was flooding and scouring of banks as there is now nothing to hold back the water.
Most of our rivers are polluted from dairy runoff and are now longer swimming quality. This has caused farmers to replant the riparian strips to prevent runoff. By planting a few Manuka bushes farmers think they can now charge for having hives on their land. They have forgotten about all the free pollination bees provide to clover and other pasture plants.
Manuka has caused a doubling of hive numbers in 10 years.
Settles for the last 150 years have been clearing the stuff for more pasture and now people are buying land and planting the stuff again in the hope they will strike gold.
Clover honey is now only produced in sheep and cattle country.
We still have stands of native bush the produce kamahi, rewarewa, beech honey dew and other bush honeys. All and all these little islands produce 12 distinct varieties of honey but a lot of the markets for this was lost as they were put into bulking out Manuka. This has now all stopped with the new Manuka regulations so we will have to start marketing our other unique honeys again.
With nearly 1 million beehives, beekeepers are having to feed supplements
Here 10 years ago it wasn’t necessary as some hives would get pollened out. We only see this now with a failing queen.
With such high hive numbers close together. Some winter apiaries 500 metres apart, AFB is increasing.
We are now facing a second year with honey in beekeepers shed unsold. Packers are also holding honey they paid well over the world price for the honey. It was to be used to bulk out Manuka. This is a situation caused by the packers bulking out honey to reduce good quality Manuka to a +5 umf which gave them greater income. Beekeepers also didn’t say no to receiving $10 per kg for any sort of honey.
Now we are finding out that the best quality Manuka doesn’t meet the new standards. No allowance was made for regional differences by our ministry of agriculture officials.
With no honey sales, this has caused some beekeepers to reduce staff. Some can’t afford to feed their hives following the second poor Manuka crop in a row. Big adjustments ahead for beekeepers in NZ until the madness ends.
Frank Lindsay
NZ
Sent from my iPadq
> On 20/04/2019, at 4:40 AM, Pete B <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> I just stumbled on an article in Bee Culture by Roger about the Major US Honey Plants in 1991. I would like to compare that list to now. This being an international group, I would welcome responses from other continents as well. By the way, he includes plants that once were important but no longer were in 1991, such as buckwheat and NYS wild thyme. This latter is seldom seen, except in cemeteries around the Catskills and sometimes along the roadsides.
>
> Email me personally if you like -- peterlborst1 (at) icloud.com
>
> Pete 🐝
>
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