Hive owner has appetite for sweet taste of honey
Andy Wiggill, owner of WigBeez Cold Pressed Honey, an East London company, said it was pure luck, and being in the right place at the right time, that got him into the honey industry. Today he owns over a thousand hives.
“Six years ago I was selling cars. A buyer came in asking for a truck that was suitable for carting hives from one area to another, so that fields could be pollinated. I asked a few questions, and it led to me taking his apiary course. Within a short while I was making more money out of my honey hobby than selling cars, so I quit the motor industry and went full-time.”
Barriers to entry into honey, he said, were mainly around the capital required to buy hives, the transport to check them and to harvest the honey, then the main one: any aversion to hard, physical work.
“Lazy people should not even consider it. When it is honey harvesting season, basically the spring and summer months, with a break for the bees between April and August, we are at it dawn to dusk. Then in the evening, we remove the honey from the wax comb frames. In winter we repair hives, build new ones and travel around looking for wild hives.”
The biggest threat to a profitable business is theft. Thieves steal the honey by burning the wooden hives, which kills the bees. They then take the honey.
“If you buy honey, in the comb, from people on the road side, chances are very high that it is stolen.”
It takes 12 bees, which only live 120 days, to produce one teaspoon of honey. One hive, in a pollen-rich area, can produce up to 40kg of pure honey.
“But that is not all profit. There are several costs, including bottles (at R10 per bottle), transport, advertising and obviously the cost of destroyed hives.”
His passion for bees is not solely because they keep him profitably employed.
“It worries me that bees are being exterminated at a savage rate through pesticides and declined harvesting areas. Without bees pollinating plants, the world will die. People think I am exaggerating the problem, but a Google search will bear me out.”
He said imported honey was inferior to the local product because it had to be irradiated, involving heating to 80° for three minutes.
“It eliminates all the bad bacteria but also kills off the good stuff, such as the natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties that honey contains. The best way to check if you are buying local is a careful scrutiny of the label. If it reads SA honey and some foreign product added, then it is not pure.”
The other check on purity is that real honey will crystallise as it ages, but if it has any additives, such as sugar or molasses, it cannot crystallise.
“One of the most remarkable things about honey is that it is the only foodstuff that cannot deteriorate. They call it the thousand-year product”.