New Zealand, spread between the latitudes of 35° and 47° south, is notorious for its changeable spring weather patterns. This spring, beekeepers in the deep south have been forced to battle through the elements as snow dumps and record September rainfall made for challenging conditions for bees and beekeepers alike.
“I’ll send you a photo of what I’m up to,” says Peter Ward down the phone line from Central Otago.
Fighting fingers numbed by still-falling snow, the Alpine Honey Specialties owner is true to his word and seconds later a photo of he and his team moving hives out of a cherry orchard – featured below – pings through.
“I think I will leave you to it today and touch base another day when you are tucked up in front of the fire,” this reporter offers.
When we do catch up again Ward explains that it’s not the first time he has had to “beekeep” in the snow.
“I have had three seasons now when I have been putting cells out as the snow comes through sideways. In 40 years, you get one of these every decade. It is not unheard of,” Ward says.
The Labour Weekend cold snap will leave Otago cherry growers nervous as to the damage caused to plants. There appears to be a “reasonable fruit set”, despite some unhelpful weather for large periods of the cherry flowering, Ward says.
“It has definitely been the wettest spring we have had for decades. There is no question about that. An incredible amount of rain.”
While it has been challenging to get around the hives in Central Otago, willow and dandelion flows have been encouraging in October when the sun has shined, leaving Ward optimistic as to the condition of hives and the season ahead. He doesn’t have to look far to find beekeepers who have had it tougher too he explains.
“Access has been difficult, but there is nowhere we haven’t been able to get to. Not like in Southland, where it has been a nightmare. I have spoken to so many beekeepers down there who say it has been an absolute bloody nightmare down there. We’ve been more fortunate. You have to pick your days and areas, but we have been able to get around,” Ward says.
Southland beekeepers spoken to by this reporter are putting a brave face on though, buoyed by a fine spell of weather in October, following the wettest September in 20 years in some parts of the district.
“I’ve got the gummies on, the leggings on overtop of the overalls, rubber gloves, the Line-7 jacket on top of it all, but after a while you get sick of all the dribbles running down your veil,” explains Shaun Lawlor of Lawlor Apiaries in Gore.
He’s been grafting queen cells every day through spring and thus has cells hatching every day, necessitating trips around the hives if at all possible. He still has two sites he hasn’t been able to visit yet this spring though.
“They are sites that you need a week of good weather to get into and they are fine during the summer months. But we only seem to be getting a couple of fine days here at the moment before it starts raining again.”
At Catlins Honey, located 15km north of Invercargill, Grant Hayes and his staff have also been doing their best to get through a record wet.
“We have been here 18 years and never seen it this wet. Saturated ground all the time. The smallest amount of rain causes more flooding in the paddocks, because everything is just so saturated. Trying to get around the bees is just a nightmare,” Hayes says.
When they can get to the hives, there has been more feeding than usual required.
“We have been losing more hives to starvation because we just can’t get there in time. All in all, the hives are not in too bad of shape though. They came through winter stronger than usual. We are just late. Treatments went in late, because we couldn’t get there in time, swarming season has just started and we can’t get around them to do swarm prevention. We are late splitting. Every time you think you are catching up a bit, the weather just bites you in the bum again.”
Further west, based just outside of Te Anau, George Bell of Southern Lakes Honey is reporting “six straight weeks of rain” from late August, through to the first week of October. He tipped 380mm of rain out of the gauge at his shed in September, but has apiary sites where over 700mm fell in the month.
“There was a period there where we just couldn’t do any beekeeping, you would just get stuck. People were getting stuck on the side of the road,” Bell says.
“It was pretty tough. The hives had no pollen left in them and the queens had almost stopped laying right through September. Just no pollen, at all. Even if they did get flying, there was nothing to bring in, because it had been raining so much.”
October saw some respite for bees and beekeepers though, and the apiarists of Southland are reporting colonies that are now building up well ahead of anticipated December honey flows. There is even optimism that there was enough sun and warmth in October to provide for queen mating success, which will be assessed in November.
“The funny thing is, it might have been incredibly wet, but when it hasn’t been raining it hasn’t been blowing. We would normally get south-westerlies which makes it incredibly cold. Then, of late, we have actually had some nice days and any queens may have got nicely mated,” Lawlor says.
“They have actually built up quite nicely in the last couple of weeks and I am doing a heck of a lot of splits at the moment.”
And while the deep south might throw up some serious weather challenges in spring, the grey rain clouds are not without a silver lining.
“The advantage of down here, because our main honey flow is so late, we get a bit longer to build the hives up,” Lawlor adds.
