It's been a busy month in the Bay of Plenty, but first-season beekeeper Aimz has managed to find a few moments to recap a period where pollination moves flowed into an early season honey harvest…
Just like a Boy George song – red, gold and green, red gold and gre-een… thankfully it’s over. Our bees have done the rounds, kiwifruit pollination is completed for the year, and the bees have been moved out to locations further afield.
With more hives into the kiwi’s than ever before, the time and effort put in to manipulating hives has paid off with a booming year, and many orchardists stating this was the best pollination they’ve ever had.
Taking into account the variables of weather, orchard managers, sprays, servicing and logistics, this time of year can be demanding on management. Timing is again of the essence, for flowering dictates the bee’s entry and post-flowering demands immediate removal of the hives before sprays can be applied. Hive movements are recorded and re-checked to prevent mis-orientation from our homing bee-cons.
And in the midst of that, my eyelids are sticking open with honey. Extraction season has come early for us with tons of strippings from our pollination hives.
But honey is another story altogether… for now I am still loving the pollen brought in by the hive on my doorstep. Possibly red, gold and green, but also shadowy hues of purple, pure white and brown.
Throughout life, my dad would put a few pollen traps out every year, harvesting for personal use and also selling a bit as animal pollen. I was always extremely grateful to be given a jar of this superfood, sparingly consumed at a teaspoon per day. Fast forward to now and I have loads of the stuff, well enough to last the year, even though I do have to restrict the kids, or they would eat it by the cupful.
Every beekeeper should experience collecting their own pollen. A complete protein with all essential amino acids, and a massive nutrient profile of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants. A plausible link in the established notion of the longevity of beekeepers.
A tribute. To the life of the bee, so short and fleeting, yet so meaningful on so many different levels.
The true value of managed honey bees in pollination has risen exponentially from the advent of varroa, and the destruction of feral colonies. Whole ecosystems rely on cross pollination of flowers. A single bee can gather around 20,000 grains of pollen per trip, visiting over 100 flowers in an hour. Collected in hairs all over its body and compacted into pollen baskets on its back legs, one colony can collect 30-40kg of pollen over a season for rearing brood.
That is a lot of pollen. Insignificant weights though in comparison to the honey coming in this season. Jeepers, shifting honey around is a great work-out. My arms are feeling it (and looking it) from jobs like taking honey (lifting honey boxes), bayvarolling hives (lifting honey boxes) and sorting and extracting (lifting hundreds of honey boxes).
Lucky it’s been interspersed with the less physical labour of transporting hives and I am feeling pretty seasoned after taking a few double layers on all night coast runs. Midnight madness at its finest and the push is almost over.
In the meantime, I’ll keep taking that bee pollen. My energy levels are peaking, though my crystal ball tells me there are many hot days in bee suits ahead. You’ll hear from me again after I catch up on my sleep…
Stay cool.
Aimz
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