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New Zealand has a flourishing population of honey bees cared for 8,190 registered beekeepers.
The message for the 2025 World Bee Day is a call to action for sustainable practices that support bees, improve food security, and protect biosecurity in the face of mounting climate pressures.
New Zealand has a flourishing population of honey bees cared for 8,190 registered beekeepers who manage 520,000 hives across the country.
At this time of year, with the hard work of producing honey done, honey bees are focused on storing up food to keep their hives fed and healthy through the winter.
While some countries have struggled with dramatic colony losses during winter, colony loss rates in New Zealand over the cold winter months have been declining.
Results from the New Zealand Colony Loss Survey 2024 showed loss rates to varroa mites, the number one threat to bees during winter for 2021-23, fell to 4.6% during winter 2024 compared to 6.4% in winter 2023.
This continues a general downward trajectory since the 2021-2022 surveys.
“The story of the 2024 NZ Colony Loss Survey is about varroa. And it’s a good story because losses to varroa showed a national decline for the first time since we started systematically measuring them,” says survey director Pike Stahlmann-Brown.
Stahlmann-Brown reports that beekeepers are doing more monitoring for varroa, and this is useful in determining when and how to treat the pest.
Good things to plant for bees this month include herbs such as lavender, salvia, rosemary and oregano, and shrubs such as michelia yunnanensis and the native koromiko. Those with larger properties might like to consider yellow gum trees, lacebark or puriri.
The agency charged with controlling the serious bee disease American Foul Brood (AFB) has defended itself against criticism from a North Canterbury beekeeper who was recently ordered to destroy equipment following a find of AFB spores in his storage shed.
Apiculture NZ is seeking assurances from authorities that the country’s beekeepers won’t be faced with the same problems that their Auckland colleagues did when that region went into lockdown.
New Zealand's apiculture industry is still growing, according to a new report.
Myrtle rust, the Government’s mānuka honey science definition, and international trends in honeybee research, are just some of the hot topics at this year’s Apiculture New Zealand National Conference, held in Rotorua July 9-11.
Damaged beehives, bee losses, and difficulty in accessing isolated hives are just some of the challenges Upper South Island beekeepers have faced since the earthquake hit last week.
A further ten commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
This morning, NZ Young Farmers (NZYF) has announced that Cheyne Gillooly will take over as its chief executive in June.
The message for the 2025 World Bee Day is a call to action for sustainable practices that support bees, improve food security, and protect biosecurity in the face of mounting climate pressures.
Consumers around the world are willing to pay more for products containing dairy and this is driving demand for butter and cream, says Fonterra.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters often describes NZ as a small and isolated nation situated 'just north of the penguins' but says in terms of global affairs, NZ and other small nations should be judged on the quality of their arguments and not the size of their military.
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