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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.
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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.
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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.
According to ASB, Fonterra's plan to sell it's Anchor and Mainlands brands could inject $4.5 billion in additional spending into the economy.
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The climate of uncertainty and market fragmentation that currently characterises the global economy suggests that many of the European agricultural machinery manufacturers will be looking for new markets.
Dignitaries from all walks of life – the governor general, politicians past and present, Maoridom- including the Maori Queen, church leaders, the primary sector and family and friends packed Our Lady of Kapiti’s Catholic church in Paraparaumu on Thursday October 23 to pay tribute to former prime Minister, Jim Bolger who died last week.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Todd McClay is encouraging farmers, growers, and foresters not to take unnecessary risks, asking that they heed weather warnings today.
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