New Zealand’s Honey Landscape
Much research has been done on honey – but not so much on the natural resources that support honey production. Manaaki Whenua has two projects that help landowners and land managers to better understand beehive carrying capacity as New Zealand’s honeybee population continues to soar.
There are now more than 875,000 registered beehives across the country, twice as many as 15 years ago. Coinciding with the industry boom, are questions about honeybees’ food resources and how to reduce hive losses. Manaaki Whenua leads a significant MBIE research programme in partnership with Māori agribusinesses and also carries out the annual NZ Colony Loss Survey for MPI.
The Honey Landscape
The Honey Landscape aims to create a comprehensive model of New Zealand’s native honey landscape, blending science and tikanga Māori. With the majority of New Zealand’s natural mānuka populations growing on Māori-owned land, Māori agribusiness has teamed up with Manaaki Whenua scientists, Plant & Food Research, and the University of Waikato, in a 5-year project that sets out to answer these questions and best maximise this opportunity. Researchers are working with Māori landowners to collect leaf samples from natural mānuka stands, extract the DNA, and see how mānuka varies in genetic makeup across a landscape and region.
“We want a tool that a landowner can use to assess their property for how many hives they can actually place there. They would take our tool, consider what is on the land, look at what sort of vegetation they have, and assess how many hives they’ve got or can actually run on the land without experiencing the loss they are having,” says Manaaki Whenua’s Dr Gary Houliston.
Colony Loss Survey
The 2018 Colony Loss Survey highlights an increase in colony losses in most regions throughout New Zealand, with the Upper North Island having the highest colony loss rates. The highest colony loss rates occurred in the Upper North Island (12.8%) and Middle South Island (11.4%), while the lowest were registered in the Lower North Island (8.1%). Trend analysis reveals that overall loss rates have increased since 2016 in the Upper North Island and across the South Island, while decreasing in the Middle North Island and Lower North Island.
Average loss rates were significantly higher for non-commercial beekeepers than for semi-commercial and commercial beekeepers.
More than 3,600 registered beekeepers (47% of NZ beekeepers) participated in the survey, providing information about the health of their bees and relevant management practices.
The survey will run again in 2019.