Stewart Family Honey

18/08/2024

Coals to Newcastle as the saying goes…
But this honey is superb, very different to family to our Havelock North honey, courtesy of friends in Alexandra
They have one serviced hive in their garden

27/05/2024

A vintage clip from 2010 - our first inspection of the hives with Monty aged 18 months

17/05/2024

Flow hive harvest - very cool bit of kit

19/02/2024

Fresh honey super boxes for the growing nuc hives and general maintenance

29/01/2024

Episode 2 - Removing the comb honey

29/01/2024

Our first summer harvest of 2024 - the bees have laid down some combs in the roof cavity ‘attic’

29/01/2024

A successful first harvest of the summer
The bees had laid some combs in their attic

29/01/2024

Busy bees - the swarm hive is doing well - capped honey in the first honey super and they are readying the second honey super

23/01/2024

Happy bees enjoying the summer warmth
A small bit of bearding on two hives - bearding is a term for when the bees move outside the hive and sit on the face of the super
I’ve added an extra super to each hive
Brood supers on the 3 nucs and a honey super on the captured swarm

02/12/2023

Inspection of the new hives 1 week on
- removing the queen containers
- check the queens are ok
- swap over to supers (boxes) that were full depth for 3/4 depth for the nuc frames (3/4 depth)
The bees had enjoyed the honey I’d left for them
Thanks for Dad for his help - we worked on hives together at our Pickle Patch orchard when I was a wee fella

28/11/2023

28/11/2023

Happy bees - All settled in and fed with some of last years comb honey
With the flow hives I can put the honey container in the hive attic and they can safely build up their reserves - historically I’d leave it out front but then there’d be a war! Lots of dead bees

28/11/2023

3 new nucleus hives and a swarm moves in - bonus 👍

28/11/2023

3 bend new nuc hives have arrived after a tough winter battling wasps for the apiary
Day one - getting them accustomed to their new location

02/04/2023

Autumn has arrived and this drone has been likely given his leave of the hive
He was inside in our kitchen this afternoon - it’s not often you see a drone about (male bee)
As winter arrives they are an extra mouth to feed and as cast adrift - it’s a tough life as a 🐝

31/03/2023

Interesting stats - we were certainly harmed along with others as we posted last Spring

Bee losses have increased by five per cent over the past seven years, steadying since 2021.

27/12/2022

A hive of activity

27/12/2022

Happy bees in good location
Sheltered from southerlies, speckled light and uninterrupted access for flight

27/12/2022

The new hives have settled in well

05/12/2022

New nuc hives and one very strong existing hive

16/10/2022

Beautiful pasture = happy 🐝 bees

05/11/2021

Nuc hive video 1 - what is a nuc hive and what are we doing with the hive today

05/11/2021

Nuc hive video iii
And now there are 4 hives

05/11/2021

Nuc hive - video ii
They’re busy already after 15 mins

05/11/2021

Introducing the nucs to their new homes
A rather dull day, but after 4 days of rain the existing hives were super busy

05/11/2021

We have some new hives 👏
Two brand new ‘nucs’ from Kereru Queen Bees 🐝
Thanks Amy
The hives were very friendly so the queens aren’t aggressive which is a nice bonus (I wasn’t stung today)

01/09/2021

Some sad colony stats for NZ
Our winter season was no better with the loss of two hives due to wasps and hive robbing

28/07/2021

https://vimeo.com/580114721
‘Simply sustainable’ by Stewart Group

# No bees 🐝 were harmed in the production of this video