A BUZZY
Experience WORDS VICKI RAVLICH-HORAN
Did you know around one third of our food comes as a direct result of honeybee pollination? Honeybees can fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second! They can detect nectar two kilometres away and fly up to 5 kilometres. Funnily enough the worker bees are all females and their job, or should we say jobs, is to collect honey, pollen, water and propolis, build new comb, take care of baby bees (called larvae), and clean as well as defend the hive. The drones, on the other hand, are all males and their purpose is to mate with the Queen. Come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out! Fascinated? It turns out you’re not alone. Hannah O'Brien from Hunt & Gather Bee Co, says they get all sorts of questions at the farmers market on bees, with lots of people wanting to visit their ‘bee farm’. Hannah’s husband Rory, the head beekeeper, can understand the curiosity as bees had fascinated him for years before he took up bee keeping. With this in mind, earlier this year this enterprising couple created Beekeeping Experiences, a chance for you to don a beekeeper’s suit and get up close and personal with thousands of buzzing bees. The first hurdle in creating these experiences was the fact that there is no such thing as a ‘bee farm’. Like most beekeepers, Hunt & Gather have hives dotted around the Waikato, some in very remote spots. The solution was found in Rory’s parents farm just up the road. Next, the only time they can really hold such events is in the summer. In the winter the bees are hibernating and it’s too cold to disturb them. But summer also happens to be the busiest time of the year for a beekeeper. Unphased by the work, this busy couple with three
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