Propolis, the gooey resin collected by our bees, from cone bearing trees to protect and sterilize the hive.
Meaning "Defense of the temple" used as a sealant, embalming intruders of the hive, and lining every cell to make completely sterile.
It's a magic product, a natural antibiotic that I and others have used with amazing effects & used historically since 300BC !
With Autumn here now, we are glad we have collected it in summer, as it's so soft and pliable but sets like rock when the temps drop.
We make the Propolis Tincture by dissolving it in alchohol at a specific ratio. Sadly, my tincture is all sold out, and our distilled Mead has all disappeared too! ,
but we will get back to making this amazing product in the near future, and it will be back in stock on the website. I encourage people to do their own research and use it with caution as some people are allergic .
Like anything, use in moderation..
More info can be found on my website.
Www.mahurangihoney.co.nz
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#naturesremedy
#honeylife
#propolis
#autumnbees
#mahurangihoney
Thinking outside the plastic box !
The honeycomb has been a great success and will
be available shortly...
Rustic, natural, primitive! Nice and simple using our own resources, flax, wax, bees, and Pohutakawa nectar...
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#lessplastic
#lessismore
#keepitsimple
#pohutukawahoney
#honeycomb
#naturalbeekeeping
#mahuberman
#mahurangihoney
Here it is, the beautiful white wax and clear nectar of our beloved Pohutukawa trees.
We are now topping our hives with boxes of 10 frames.
(The honey supers are 8 fatter frames) These boxes will be the bees foodstores they will overwinter with.
Rather than crushing bees, we scrape off any thick honeycomb and place it into the feeder. This will be taken down into the hives super quick.
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#mahurangihoney #Pohutukawa
#pohutukawahoney
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Moving a hive from the ground up onto our Argentine Ant-proof pellet created confusion with the bees in finding their gateway back to the hive...
An army on the entrance board, with bumbs up and ferociously flapping, calling their lost comrades ...
They produce a pheromone from their abdomen and fan their wings to send this scent out to signal the lost, disoriented bees and bring them back home. 🐝🐝🐝
#lostbees
#busybees
#apiarylife
#springbees
#lovebees❤️
#mahurangihoney
Undersupering.. full heavy boxes of honey moved up, empty honey box popped in, just above the bottom brood chamber.
It's a tricky balancing act of taking extra care of not to squash bees, and maneuvering these heavy boxes of honey, but we do our best.
We hate to squash bees ..
#mahurangihoney
#lovebees
Yep, be very careful with your Queens, there's only one! and it's wise to be extra vigilant, as to where she is.. it's very easy to crush or roll her, and quite often she'll be up on the top excluder of her brood chamber, when opening up the box.
We are in a habit of facing the excluder up, and against the hive, as shown in this video, so she will head back home, if she's removed from her bee palace !
#queenbee
#lovebees
#nzbeekeeping
#springbeekeeping
#mahurangihoney
Its great to see the bees are starting to really come away with the warmer weather.. but with warm weather, come more traffic.. the joys of landing on a busy runway !
#springhassprung
#springbeekeeping
#busybees
#mahurangihoney
Yep, the ultimate laying machine, she's a ripper.. a beautiful Italian Carniolan crossed Queen.
#nzbeekeeping #mahurangihoney #realhoney #manukahoney
Round 1 of our new season completed, with spring just a week away. It was a massive relief to see our new site up high on the SugarLoaf Mountain, clear of the dreaded Argentine Ants and all doing well, every single hive !!
The cleaning of the base boards is a good habit and assists the hive, clearing debris, damp, and moulds, setting them up for a good start.. We are using an old paint scraper, which works better than the hive tool..
Treatment for the Varroa mite needs to go in asap. Even if they look clear, they won't be, and if treatments go in later, it can be too late, setting them up for failure..
And assessment of the Queens. Pete points out a Queen that is starting to fail, as they get older, or just not mated well. She will be replaced in the near future with a new, vibrant queen. We need more drones about before our breeding program starts..
We are hopeful for a good season ahead and will have all our hives in the best condition possible to bring in a great harvest, mother nature and weather permitting ! 🙏
#varroacontrol
#cleanhives
#springisintheair
#argentineants
#springclean
#mothernature
#kansas
#sameoldsong
#dustinthewind
#prayforagoodseason
#nzbeekeeping
#mahurangihoney
It's quiet on the Beekeeping front, with winter well and truly set in.. But thankfully, we were notified of a beehive face down in the muck @wahuridge ! We strop all hives that share paddocks with cows, which keeps them safe from knocks and rolls... Early morning, we swung by Oyster Cove to right the hive that had been nudged and rolled down into the drain..
The land has not dried out from the wet summer, and we have never seen the mud, slips, and sodden ground as bad as this before. I was impressed with the chains on the farm hack and loved seeing the spoilt cattle enjoying their hay from Mickey..
The bees are happy to be the right way round again.. 5 mins of beekeeping made a nice change!
#wetwinter #countrylife #wintercattle
#beehivesinwinter #winterbees
#beesofinstagram🐝 #backtothebees
#savethebees #rescuebees #bloodywet
#kawasaki #chains #farminglife
#mahubeeman #mahurangihoney
Wasps !! A real threat to our bees, usually peaking in later autumn. It's time I shared our method of control. Disturbing viewing in parts sorry.
We make 2 simple traps, the Bong Trap and the simpler Inverted Trap. You can use a coke bottle, or anything smaller, a mixture of sugar syrup and 10% vinegar approx to lure... If the bees are attracted, add a dash more vinegar. A SLASH around the entrances will get them attracted quicker..
We came back the following day to see how it was going, the pressure was off, and a good amount of wasp caught. We have seen this size Trap 1/3 full, thousands!! That video is a couple of years previous..
#wasps #saveourbees
#wasptrap #recycle
#autumnbeekeeping
#thatsgold
#tongarirowater
#mahurangihoney
Beautiful beeswax.. using it all! Every last scrap.. we scrape, scrimp, and scrounge, beeswax is soooo precious 😍
Melted down, and then melted again to further clean, it's quite a process, and then I make the candles, balms, and polishes that people love. Myself included !
See my website www.mahurangihoney.co.nz for my
Natural chemical free balms, candles and skincare products.
#beeswaxlove🐝❤️
#useitall #sustainableliving
#nowaste #beeswaxproducts
#mahurangihoney
I never realised how perilous it is for the bees landing with pollen laden legs, and the importance of a clear runway 😳
#beesnz #sustainableliving
#lovebees
#mahurangihoney
It's that time of year for shuffling our hives around, and these hives have the ultimate spot, back up high on the Sugar Loaf.. an easy move that went like clockwork.. The brush in front of the hives creates a new obstacle, making the bees see obvious change and reorientate themselves to their new surroundings.
This mountain is paradise for the bees. There's something about it that clicks. They do sooo well up here, and we're excited to have them back. The new landowners tell us they have been wanting hives for many year's and are as chuffed as we are.
#movinghives #mahubeeman #anotherdayinparadise
#matakana #reorientation #preciouscargo #autumn
#loveyourbees #hives #smallbusiness
#artisanhoney #smallbatch #mahurangihoney
Easter weekend, and there's nothing nicer than a crisp swim and a sample of Mangrove honey..
Living on a peninsular, we have mangroves on either side, and we see the workforce making a beeline directly down to their autumn flowering and back again. The nectar is like dark salted caramel, absolutely heavenly.. the beekeepers wifes personal favorite !
It's not a nectar we can gather now, as all the food sources are for the bees winter stores..
Doesn't stop me fantasizing about collecting and straining just 1 frame, though!! 😋
Happy Easter, everyone
#Easter #autumnvibes #autumnhives #mangroves #dontworrybehappy #bobmarley #freshisbest #saltyhoney
#coastalhoney #beekeeperslife🐝 #autumnbeekeeping #womaninbeekeeping
#womanbeekeeper
#besthoneyintheworld
#nzbeekeeping #countrystyle
#mangrove_photography #mahurangihoney
Capturing a Queen. We can collect a Queen by placing her gently into a candy cage. Yes, the entrance is blocked with candy! She also requires attendant bees, or young nurse bees, which won't fight with the other hive there introduced too.. bees, as you can see, can be picked up gently by the wings.
The cage is placed into a new queenless hive, and the bees have a gentle, slow introduction, chewing through the candy !
#requeening #capturingqueens #queenbees #italianqueen #autumnbees #splittinghives
#beesofinstagram #beekeeperslife🐝
#mahurangihoney
There's something totally disturbing about a hive struggling with Varroa. It acts differently, it smells different, and seeing deformed struggling young and giant alien like bugs riding our precious bees is like a horror story.
The hives have all been in top form, strong, healthy, queens laying ferociously like it's spring!
Till today, when we came across these struggling hives..
Treatment is going into all the hives now, whether it's visible or not, we're getting around the Apiaries as quickly as we can and treating. If we don't treat, we lose our colonies, simple
#smallbatchbeekeepers #varroamite
#treatyourbees
#mahurangihoney
It's a legal requirement to inspect your hives for American Foul Brood before harvest.
The last thing you want is to take any infected hives back to our processing facility. Because of so much wet weather, we are having to check now as we harvest, which is slowing things down... into every brood box, inspect every frame of brood for perforation, slumped gooey pupa, roping out..
So far, so good, no AFB detected. But a lot of actively laying queens, active happy bees, and very few varroa mites at this stage, which is great to see !
#afbchecks #afb #doyourchecks
#americanfoulbrood #brood
#healthybeeshealthyplanet
#beekeeperslife🐝
#manukahoney
#varroamite
#harvest2023
#mahurangihoney
Happy New Year 2023 .. It's not been the perfect season, that's for sure! But we have had a lot of downtime, waiting for the honey to ripen, so plenty of time for rest n relaxation, catching up with friends and family, swimming, fishing, and mucking round home like normal people..
Pete's moonshining is a simple process, and yet another by-product of our honey harvest, using the sticky wax capping from last years harvest, to make a rich honey Mead.. Certain barrels we drag down to the shed to distill, making a higher alcohol Moonshine in his homemade, fit for purpose still !
It's all good fun, and I call it our tonic of life..
Not to mention our overflow of mongrel chicks hanging around for their dinner!
Here's cheers to a great 2023!
And all the best for everyone 💘
#sustainableliving #happynewyear
#2023 #makingmoonshine #downtime
#beekeeperslife #happynewyear
#homegrown #makeityourself
#brewyourown #meadmaking
#moonshining #steveearle
#copperheadroad #homemadestill
#beekeepersofinstagram
#backyardbrewery
#mahurangihoney
