Bad buzz left behind

The honey ‘‘gold rush’’ has seen Marlborough overpopulated with bees, says a commercial honey farmer.

Too many colonies mean bees are competing for food sources, which can lead to colony losses.

A survey for the Ministry for Primary Industries following winter in 2018 showed bee colony losses had doubled in the top of the south to 10 per cent.

This coincided with an increase in the number of colonies across Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman, from about 13,000 colonies in 2017 to 40,000 in 2018.

Marlborough’s J Bush and Sons managing director Murray Bush said this winter would have been similar to last, but they had prepared themselves for potential problems and changed the way they operated. They had lost some hives to the varroa mite, but overall their bees fared well throughout the cold season.

‘‘We were actually very lucky. It’s not widespread. I don’t think it will impact the season ahead of us.’’

The parasitic varroa mite, which can weaken and destroy bee colonies, was discovered in New Zealand in 2000 and reached Marlborough hives by 2006. Beekeepers say weaker hives are more susceptible to parasites and disease.

Bush said the overpopulation of bees in Marlborough showed there were too many beekeepers or beehives in parts of the region.

‘‘A lot of it has come out of chasing honey. We went through a bit of a gold rush which we’ve now dropped out of.

‘‘In that gold rush mentality, a lot of people got into keeping bees and in some of those areas, there’s too many bees for the amount of food available.’’

J Bush and Sons had about 2500 hives scattered across the region. In 2016, the family celebrated 100 years of commercial honey making in Marlborough.

They weren’t seeing the drastic impacts of overpopulation yet, but Bush thought it wasn’t far off.

‘‘It could have some big impacts as the summer goes on.’’

Throughout New Zealand, the four most common reasons for a colony to die off in the 2018 winter were queen problems, suspected varroa mite infestation, suspected starvation of bees (generally caused by weather) and wasps.

According to Apiculture New Zealand, as of June, 2019, there were 924,973 registered beehives across New Zealand, with the greatest proportion in the North Island.

Throughout the country, the 2017/18 season produced an estimated 20,000 tonnes of honey, a record crop for the industry.

Bush said it was too early to tell what this year’s honey yield would look like.

Marlborough Beekeeping Association president Dion Mundy said there were always concerns about people putting too many bees out, especially when looking for manuka. It was an issue nationally and locally.

‘‘There’s a convention that you don’t go and stick a whole lot of hives next to someone else’s apiary, but with a whole lot of new people coming into the industry, that’s been less respected.’’

Mundy, a hobby beekeeper, said there were no rules in place to stop this happening.

‘‘There’s always a concern that if you have people who are less experienced, be they hobbiest or commercial, if they’re not looking after their bees and those bees crash, that’s when we get problems with diseases spreading.’’