April 14, 2026 • 11 mins
Michael Wright talks all things that you ever wanted to know around honey bees.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Miss This is the Muster on Hakanui.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Michael Wright is a bee keeper based out of a
trek at honey by rights as the name of his business,
and bee keeping with the bee industry is a fascinating one.
We all know how the humble honeybee contributes to the ecosystem,
but it's been under attack recently with Thearroa mid and
the likes being on the horizon. So Michael's going to
give us a bit of a rundown on what it's
(00:33):
like being involved in the industry at the moment. Michael,
good afternoon, and welcome to the Muster.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, here you go.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah really well mate, Now, firstly, the industry you're involved one.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Not everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They all see the honey bees on their travels, but
they're kind of it's almost a case of the unknown
around humble honey bee.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, they're all they're tucked away in the hills and
most people don't like to go near them because they
get stung. So yeah, it's an interesting it's definite an
interesting industry. It's in probably you'd probably say it's in
decline at the moment with those peak prices sort of
ten years ago, and we did get up to twelve
(01:14):
well one point two million hives in New Zealand, but
now it's druck right back down to just under half
a million as people have exited the industry and prices
have been really quite bad for a bowlk honey. But
I think it's kind of leveled out now and a
lot of the bulk honey that's been stored has been
sold and it's leveling out of it now. We're sort
(01:36):
of prices are creeping brick back up slowly. We're sort
of getting up towards eight dollars fifty now a kg
and a drum, which is quite good. We did go
as low as two to three dollars if you could
even sell your honey, So it was pretty grim there
a few years ago. But it's definitely I think it's
(01:57):
trenty more positive and talking to other beekeepers out there,
I think it's hopefully hitting a bit of a training point.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now, what did takes the price of honey, Well, we.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Were oversupplied when when honey prices went up, they were
sort of hitting fourteen dollars a cagy and a drum,
and a lot of people just pulled into the industry,
a lot of corporate groups, and I think we just
oversupplied the market. And then well they got the whole
Manuka honey industry up north, which is quite different to
us down in the South, and we were supplying them
(02:31):
honey which they were blending. But then they changed the
rules on blending and what actually dictates what actually Minuka
honey is, and then so we couldn't sell the emmere
honey and there was just too much honey around and
overnight we just went from like fourteen dollars to two dollars.
Can't imagine what that's like.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
The market just got flooded.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I suppose yes, yeah, MARKT got flooded, but definitely balancing
it out better now, I think, and I think likes
for us, Like at an air situation, we put all
of well, we've got eleven hundred hives. We produce I
don't know, maybe forty ton of honey a year, mostly clover,
(03:15):
and we used to just put the whole lot and
drums and send it away one day every year, so
you extract your crop, send it away, get paid.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
All done.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well. When honey prices crashed, we sort of into panic
mode and created our own label and honey stools and things,
and in hindsight it was probably actually the best thing
for us. It wasn't at the time. But now we're
selling probably sixty percent of your crop. We actually pack
it ourseals now and sell it, so we're not so
(03:44):
reliant on the commodity price. But it goes up and down.
We're not too bothered about it. It's nice if it's up,
but if we can sell most of your crop direct
to the public, it's way better.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How many bees does it take to make a keyla
of honey?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, so in a strong hive in the middle of Summa,
there's about sixty thousand bees, and a good strong hive
will produce anywhere from sort of forty to one hundred
kgs of honey and make one pound of honey. These
(04:23):
have to visit two million flowers when you eat it.
Beat on that. It's actually quite crazy. Yeah, But then
and saying that what that does mean is for farmers
it works. It's a good relationship for us and the
farmer because you can imagine if you've got these clover paddocks,
like we take hives out to Lake Onslow, the palmerharka
(04:47):
a lot of clover out there, and if we bring
in you know, maybe five time out of one quite
small area. When you work out how many flowers have
been visited and pollinated, it's a very good win win
for us and the farmer. So if you go into
an area there's no bees and you pick up a
clover flower and you know here, you rub it between
(05:08):
your hands and you'll get all those little clover seeds
fall out. Ye, Well, if there's no bees, you don't
get that there's no seed. So we notice when we
put hides into an area, the first year is not
very good. Then the second year will be better, and
then the third years even better because we're creating so
much clover seed, and so the farmer is happy to
(05:28):
be getting all that seed in the ground as well.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Regarding the own mind, what effects of your seed?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Oh, it's just a headache. It's it's one of those
things that's just always there's a that's a powasite, but
it's not a very good one because it kills its hosts.
So if we don't treat for the might your hives die.
It's not maybe it's a it's a guaranteed, and all
(05:55):
the treatments available are slowly becoming resistant so I mean,
we used to be able to buy synthet x like
Bavor or Appiva and twice a year just chuck them
in the hive and it worked well. Those treatments really
aren't working now. So now we're moving on to more
like slightly organic things like oxalic acid, which is like
(06:18):
a naturally occurring acid, and onions and things like that,
and we put those in the hives now and that
actually it actually burns the mouth of the vrow mine
and it can't feed on the bee and kills it.
And that's working quite well at the moment.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It sounds brutal, Oh it is.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
It's a horrible mite. It's if it was in relation
to this equivalent of the size of a human would
be like a rat living on you. That's how big
it is.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's quite big.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's the size of a size of a pin head,
which sounds small, but when you think of a bee,
you know, be's pretty small. So it's this quite big
mite that lives on them and it sticks its fans
and sucks the blood out of the bee and feeds
on it. And that's not what actually kills the bee.
The problem is it does that to one bee and
then changes bees and bees are just like humans, they
(07:07):
have viruses as well, so it transfer as viruses around
the hive and the hive just gets weaker and weaker
until it kills them.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What was a figure I read the other day around
thirteen percent of New Zealand's bee colonies were destroyed last year,
jed the verroa mic.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Does that sound correct?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I'd say it's even higher than that. Every area
is different. We're probably lucky down here in Etrich because
it's cold, and what that does is in the wintertime,
your queens basically stop laying young bees, so it creates
what you call a brood break. So if you keep
your MIC levels low and you get this brood break,
(07:43):
the mcs actually starve and you come unto the spring
with quite clean hives. So but if you lived in
say Auckland, and it's warm and the queen's are laying
brood all year round, well you're going to have quite
high MIC loadings all year round. It makes it really hard.
And I'm just looking at Australia at the moment because
they've just got rail turned up and they are getting
(08:04):
annihilated because their climate's so hot. The mites are thriving,
and I'm seeing guys on a few of the beak
even for him saying that out of you know, three
hundred hives have got ten left.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, so they're getting increasified over there.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, what about wasps and hornets? What issues do they
create down here? Hornets are such, not so much, but
wasps in particular.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah, the same. Again, it's certain areas are quite bad,
like Alexandre is quite bad. Certain climates. We're not too
bad down here. We get a few wasps, but we
don't really have to do too much about it. Hornets.
So obviously everyone's talking about these hornets that have arrived
in Auckland. I actually just had a look on their
(08:50):
website again just before to make sure see what was happening.
And they have still got it contained two Auckland, and
they've got eleven kilometer buffer's own. I've picked up I
think seventy seven queens, one hundred and thirty two nests.
I mean, as long as you never know, they might
get on top of it. We've all got your fingers crossed, certainly,
(09:10):
but we just hope one day soon, you know, someone
doesn't find one in Wellington or something crazy a lot
there because that happens, it means they're really the horse
has bolted. But who knows, maybe they get on top
of it. They've got some pretty flash technology. They're putting
radio transmitters on hornets and following them back to the
nests and destroying them. So we're just really hopeful that
might work.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Just finally, how do you cope with bees things? Or
are you immune to them?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah? We get stuck a lot, but it doesn't really
affect you. Now. You know, some days you might get
thirty or forty or something, but I guess your body's
just yeah, it just doesn't react anymore. Yeah, the people
who are asking it does still hurt, though.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Of course it does.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So you're pretty you're positive for the future of the
industry down here.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think so. In this season was probably one of
the worst seasons for honey we've ever had. We're under
weigh under fifty percent of honey crop would normally get
just because it was just too cold in January. But
looking ahead, honey prices are coming up of the Yeah,
I think a lot of the the big corps that
(10:18):
sort of pole in the industry of all left that's
I think it's actually quite a good thing to get
the numbers back down to where they sort of should be,
so hopefully. Yeah, it's I mean, it's a great job,
it's a good lifestyle. You're probably never going to be
a millionaire, but you know, it's like most farming would
have thought.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And you're never one for honey on your toaste.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
No, we have a good supply of honey.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hey, good idea, Michael. It's been a great chat, fascinating
inside into the world of a bee keeper. We'll catch
up again too, and you enjoy the afternoon. All the
best out there in the hives.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, no worries, good chat, Michael.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Wright, bee keeper of it at each trick.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Telling you about the b industry and so much about
it is just fascinating, So a bit of an insight
into what the world's like. Eronica Reyesween is up next
to Dery and z. Then Robin Grere of PGG writes
in Real Estate
Miss This is the Muster on Hakanui.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Michael Wright is a bee keeper based out of a
trek at honey by rights as the name of his business,
and bee keeping with the bee industry is a fascinating one.
We all know how the humble honeybee contributes to the ecosystem,
but it's been under attack recently with Thearroa mid and
the likes being on the horizon. So Michael's going to
give us a bit of a rundown on what it's
(00:33):
like being involved in the industry at the moment. Michael,
good afternoon, and welcome to the Muster.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, here you go.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah really well mate, Now, firstly, the industry you're involved one.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Not everybody does it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They all see the honey bees on their travels, but
they're kind of it's almost a case of the unknown
around humble honey bee.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, they're all they're tucked away in the hills and
most people don't like to go near them because they
get stung. So yeah, it's an interesting it's definite an
interesting industry. It's in probably you'd probably say it's in
decline at the moment with those peak prices sort of
ten years ago, and we did get up to twelve
(01:14):
well one point two million hives in New Zealand, but
now it's druck right back down to just under half
a million as people have exited the industry and prices
have been really quite bad for a bowlk honey. But
I think it's kind of leveled out now and a
lot of the bulk honey that's been stored has been
sold and it's leveling out of it now. We're sort
(01:36):
of prices are creeping brick back up slowly. We're sort
of getting up towards eight dollars fifty now a kg
and a drum, which is quite good. We did go
as low as two to three dollars if you could
even sell your honey, So it was pretty grim there
a few years ago. But it's definitely I think it's
(01:57):
trenty more positive and talking to other beekeepers out there,
I think it's hopefully hitting a bit of a training point.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now, what did takes the price of honey, Well, we.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Were oversupplied when when honey prices went up, they were
sort of hitting fourteen dollars a cagy and a drum,
and a lot of people just pulled into the industry,
a lot of corporate groups, and I think we just
oversupplied the market. And then well they got the whole
Manuka honey industry up north, which is quite different to
us down in the South, and we were supplying them
(02:31):
honey which they were blending. But then they changed the
rules on blending and what actually dictates what actually Minuka
honey is, and then so we couldn't sell the emmere
honey and there was just too much honey around and
overnight we just went from like fourteen dollars to two dollars.
Can't imagine what that's like.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
The market just got flooded.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I suppose yes, yeah, MARKT got flooded, but definitely balancing
it out better now, I think, and I think likes
for us, Like at an air situation, we put all
of well, we've got eleven hundred hives. We produce I
don't know, maybe forty ton of honey a year, mostly clover,
(03:15):
and we used to just put the whole lot and
drums and send it away one day every year, so
you extract your crop, send it away, get paid.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
All done.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well. When honey prices crashed, we sort of into panic
mode and created our own label and honey stools and things,
and in hindsight it was probably actually the best thing
for us. It wasn't at the time. But now we're
selling probably sixty percent of your crop. We actually pack
it ourseals now and sell it, so we're not so
(03:44):
reliant on the commodity price. But it goes up and down.
We're not too bothered about it. It's nice if it's up,
but if we can sell most of your crop direct
to the public, it's way better.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How many bees does it take to make a keyla
of honey?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, so in a strong hive in the middle of Summa,
there's about sixty thousand bees, and a good strong hive
will produce anywhere from sort of forty to one hundred
kgs of honey and make one pound of honey. These
(04:23):
have to visit two million flowers when you eat it.
Beat on that. It's actually quite crazy. Yeah, But then
and saying that what that does mean is for farmers
it works. It's a good relationship for us and the
farmer because you can imagine if you've got these clover paddocks,
like we take hives out to Lake Onslow, the palmerharka
(04:47):
a lot of clover out there, and if we bring
in you know, maybe five time out of one quite
small area. When you work out how many flowers have
been visited and pollinated, it's a very good win win
for us and the farmer. So if you go into
an area there's no bees and you pick up a
clover flower and you know here, you rub it between
(05:08):
your hands and you'll get all those little clover seeds
fall out. Ye, Well, if there's no bees, you don't
get that there's no seed. So we notice when we
put hides into an area, the first year is not
very good. Then the second year will be better, and
then the third years even better because we're creating so
much clover seed, and so the farmer is happy to
(05:28):
be getting all that seed in the ground as well.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Regarding the own mind, what effects of your seed?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Oh, it's just a headache. It's it's one of those
things that's just always there's a that's a powasite, but
it's not a very good one because it kills its hosts.
So if we don't treat for the might your hives die.
It's not maybe it's a it's a guaranteed, and all
(05:55):
the treatments available are slowly becoming resistant so I mean,
we used to be able to buy synthet x like
Bavor or Appiva and twice a year just chuck them
in the hive and it worked well. Those treatments really
aren't working now. So now we're moving on to more
like slightly organic things like oxalic acid, which is like
(06:18):
a naturally occurring acid, and onions and things like that,
and we put those in the hives now and that
actually it actually burns the mouth of the vrow mine
and it can't feed on the bee and kills it.
And that's working quite well at the moment.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It sounds brutal, Oh it is.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
It's a horrible mite. It's if it was in relation
to this equivalent of the size of a human would
be like a rat living on you. That's how big
it is.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's quite big.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's the size of a size of a pin head,
which sounds small, but when you think of a bee,
you know, be's pretty small. So it's this quite big
mite that lives on them and it sticks its fans
and sucks the blood out of the bee and feeds
on it. And that's not what actually kills the bee.
The problem is it does that to one bee and
then changes bees and bees are just like humans, they
(07:07):
have viruses as well, so it transfer as viruses around
the hive and the hive just gets weaker and weaker
until it kills them.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What was a figure I read the other day around
thirteen percent of New Zealand's bee colonies were destroyed last year,
jed the verroa mic.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Does that sound correct?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I'd say it's even higher than that. Every area
is different. We're probably lucky down here in Etrich because
it's cold, and what that does is in the wintertime,
your queens basically stop laying young bees, so it creates
what you call a brood break. So if you keep
your MIC levels low and you get this brood break,
(07:43):
the mcs actually starve and you come unto the spring
with quite clean hives. So but if you lived in
say Auckland, and it's warm and the queen's are laying
brood all year round, well you're going to have quite
high MIC loadings all year round. It makes it really hard.
And I'm just looking at Australia at the moment because
they've just got rail turned up and they are getting
(08:04):
annihilated because their climate's so hot. The mites are thriving,
and I'm seeing guys on a few of the beak
even for him saying that out of you know, three
hundred hives have got ten left.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Things like that.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Yeah, so they're getting increasified over there.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, what about wasps and hornets? What issues do they
create down here? Hornets are such, not so much, but
wasps in particular.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yeah, the same. Again, it's certain areas are quite bad,
like Alexandre is quite bad. Certain climates. We're not too
bad down here. We get a few wasps, but we
don't really have to do too much about it. Hornets.
So obviously everyone's talking about these hornets that have arrived
in Auckland. I actually just had a look on their
(08:50):
website again just before to make sure see what was happening.
And they have still got it contained two Auckland, and
they've got eleven kilometer buffer's own. I've picked up I
think seventy seven queens, one hundred and thirty two nests.
I mean, as long as you never know, they might
get on top of it. We've all got your fingers crossed, certainly,
(09:10):
but we just hope one day soon, you know, someone
doesn't find one in Wellington or something crazy a lot
there because that happens, it means they're really the horse
has bolted. But who knows, maybe they get on top
of it. They've got some pretty flash technology. They're putting
radio transmitters on hornets and following them back to the
nests and destroying them. So we're just really hopeful that
might work.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Just finally, how do you cope with bees things? Or
are you immune to them?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah? We get stuck a lot, but it doesn't really
affect you. Now. You know, some days you might get
thirty or forty or something, but I guess your body's
just yeah, it just doesn't react anymore. Yeah, the people
who are asking it does still hurt, though.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Of course it does.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So you're pretty you're positive for the future of the
industry down here.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think so. In this season was probably one of
the worst seasons for honey we've ever had. We're under
weigh under fifty percent of honey crop would normally get
just because it was just too cold in January. But
looking ahead, honey prices are coming up of the Yeah,
I think a lot of the the big corps that
(10:18):
sort of pole in the industry of all left that's
I think it's actually quite a good thing to get
the numbers back down to where they sort of should be,
so hopefully. Yeah, it's I mean, it's a great job,
it's a good lifestyle. You're probably never going to be
a millionaire, but you know, it's like most farming would
have thought.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And you're never one for honey on your toaste.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
No, we have a good supply of honey.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hey, good idea, Michael. It's been a great chat, fascinating
inside into the world of a bee keeper. We'll catch
up again too, and you enjoy the afternoon. All the
best out there in the hives.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, no worries, good chat, Michael.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Wright, bee keeper of it at each trick.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Telling you about the b industry and so much about
it is just fascinating, So a bit of an insight
into what the world's like. Eronica Reyesween is up next
to Dery and z. Then Robin Grere of PGG writes
in Real Estate
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