Raglan Apiaries

Great Christmas Gift Ideas at Naturally Healthy
Coastal Bush Honey From The Natural Wilderness of NZ's West Coast
Rich and velvety, Kānuka Honey contains golden caramel notes. Not to be confused with its sister, Mānuka - it is sourced from the New Zealand tea tree. Raglan Apiaries Honey is raw and pure so it retains its goodness from the hive to your home. Harvested in New Zealand, their products are sweet, nourishing and of the highest natural quality.
Available at Naturally Healthy.
In Store and On Line https://naturallyhealthy.co.nz/search?type=product&q=raglan+apiaries
715 Grey Street - Claudelands Hamilton
phone 079583845

Coastal Bush Honey From The Natural Wilderness of NZ's West Coast

Rich and velvety, Kānuka Honey contains golden caramel notes. Not to be confused with its sister, Mānuka - it is sourced from the New Zealand tea tree. Raglan Apiaries Honey is raw and pure so it retains its goodness from the hive to your home. Harvested in New Zealand, their products are sweet, nourishing and of the highest natural quality.
Available at Naturally Healthy.
In Store and On Line https://naturallyhealthy.co.nz/search?type=product&q=honey+raglan
715 Grey Street - Claudelands Hamilton
phone 079583845

Help save this beautiful bird sanctuary that this family have worked so hard to develop.

Sign the Petition Save Shaw's Bird Park

On the journey towards visiting the Bees, sometimes it is good to stop and enjoy the views

Inspecting the bees today, I am getting them ready for the colder months.

Usually this entails adequate food stocks for the Winter hibernation and checking that Varroa (honey bee parasite) and AFB ( American Foul Brood disease) are clear from all beehives.

The bees are happy and healthy and on a sunny day like today they like to come out and soak up the sun shine rays and stretch their wings.

A native stick insect was watching me inspect the hives from a near by kanuka tree, he was a big fellow a similar size to my right hand.

Good times

Space the Beekeeper finding the Queen bee 🐝

Part of our routine check on our beehives is to ensure the queen is healthy and present, the queen bee is vital for the beehive to survive as the queen is the only member of the colony that lays eggs for worker bees and drones.

Fun fact

Healthy, fertile queens are capable of laying eggs almost constantly. During peak season, a quality queen can lay over 3,000 eggs per day - that's more than her own body weight in eggs in a day!

The Raglan Apiaires Observation Hive

After many markets the team at Raglan Apiaires decided it would be of benefit to have the Bees come and join us, showcasing the honey makers themselves. We have hope this will promote education and curiosity into the world of honeybees and the great benefits they bring.

With the observation hive we do not bring the queen due to the stress it puts on the colony as a whole. The worker bees can smell the pheromones of the queen and will not like her absence.

We take a single frame of bees in which we try to include: honey, pollen, bee larvae and brood and also the male drone bees.

By chance you see us and our bees, come and say hello and ask us anything bee related, we are more than happy to share the wonders of the honeybees. 🐝

Space and Bevan working the bees in the new year.

Sharing some sweet goodness outside Go Eco this morning.

We are down at the tiny shop today in Raglan until 4pm. Come on down to get your honey fix and sample all our flavors.

Thanks Go Eco. We love sharing our honey and bee knowledge with others ❤️ 🐝

Love my office today. Wonderful food, good company, great music and beautiful views. The bees would approve. Stop by and see us between 8am and 12 today at the Hamilton Farmers Market.

We are back at the Hamilton Farmers Market today til 12 with our coastal, kanuka and kanuka blend honey.

Native bees in America

During my travels I have been keeping a close eye on pollinators other than honey bees.

I have witnessed many small bees to large insects working intensive on the many flowers of National parks in Washington to street sides curbs in Oklahoma.

With great difficulty I try and snap a photo of these amazing creatures only for them to disappear in a flash or they so small that the camera struggles to make out any detail.

With a little luck I managed to snap two photos that I can share.

In the first photo is a unidentified micro bee (2mm at most) working a tree full of yellow flowers on the side of a highway in Tennessee. I did my best in researching on what it could be but failed in identifying exactly on what it is. I was told by a local beekeeper that there are thousands of unidentified bees in the state and quite possibly this was one of them.

In the second photo ( I do apologize about the quality) is a Bombus Centralis and these bumble bees are native to Canada and Washington state of America. This fellow in the photo was working a local garden by Long Beach Washington where I was staying for a couple of days.

Honey bees are important pollinators but the earth's ecosystem is truly reliant on ten and thousands of pollinators ranging from Flys to butterflies and even certain wasp species.

Sadly certain species of these pollinators are going extinct due to pesticides, loss of habitat and aggressive agriculture practices.

Without these wonderful insects life on earth does look bleak.

I am wanting to do more in understanding what these various bee species impact is on local flora and help share to the community the work these important pollinators bring.

If you have small pollinators in you garden take a photo and share, the more we discover and help bring the importance of these amazing insects it would help motivate people to plant wild flowers for these insects to survive on.

Even something little can have a great impact 😃

Kind regards

Bevan the Beekeeper

Blog post: Meet and greet with Brian Rukin owner and operator of NUCS & SINGLES APIARY a Commercial queen breeder from Palm city, Miami Florida

On the journey through Florida, I had an opportunity to catch up with Flordia beekeeper Brian Rukin

Brian Rukin is a commercial queen bee breeder and keeps between 4000 to 10000 hives depending on the season and customer requirements for the current year.

When we arrived I couldnt help notice all the large colourful geckos and lizards running around his premises, Brian explained that they are beneficial to have because they like to fest on a beehive pest called the hive bettle, this particular insect can cause major issues for beekeepers in Florida like Brian.

Hive bettles are a parasitic bettle that infiltrate beehive colonies and can lay lavare that burrow and eat through bee brood comb ( baby bees ). They also leave a rotten stench goo that spoils the honey.

Brian showed me an old frame that was contaminated by the hive bettle, lucky for me we don't have the small hive bettle in NZ, hopefully it stays that way.

For Florida beekeepers, a native tree to the region is called Palmetto, this is a tropical palm tree, honey bees like gathering this honey along the coastlines and marshlands of Florida. It gives a beautiful smoky after taste with hint of fruit, it is an amber red colored honey.

I asked Brian what he believes are the greatest challenges for a Florida Beekeeper, he explained due to the high heat and humidity from a tropical sub-climate results in a high risk of dehydration due to high physical activity of carry heavy boxes and wearing a full body suit.

He says not only water is important but also one needs essential electrolytes due to the excessive sweating. He drinks large volumes of coconut-water that contain potassium.

We inspected a local bee yard and talked about the types of honey and bee breeds.

This visit was a first for me to see how beekeeping is in a tropical climate.

Thank you Brian for the tour of your beehouse and apairy, I have enjoyed my visit, tropical beekeeping is a true art 😊

Blog post: Virgina Beach

Today I meet with Tarek Zaki a Virgina beach hobbyist beekeeper who has kept bees on his property for over 10 years at present holding 15 beehives.

I had an amazing time with Tarek, we began our catch up over breakfast.

( Tarek made this beautiful dish of feta, tomatoes and basil and virgin oils on flat bread, absolutely yummy!!! 😋)

We chatted about different methods of varroa control, how temperamental the weather is on nectar flow in Virginia Beach, and what Pests and diseases Tarek encounters on a regular basis.

Tareks biggest challenge he faces is how unpredictable it is for knowing when the honey/nectar will arrive and if so for how long. Tarek has found some previous seasons the bees gathered no honey at all.

While we were examining a swarm he captured we found the colony was attacking the new queen he delivered recently.

Rest in peace queen bee 🐝 🙏

After we examined the beehives Tarek showed me his spectacular food forest growing on his property ranging from herbs and spices to citrus fruit trees.

To finish the tour Tarek made a delicious refreshing cold beverage of limes, honey, and mint.

Thank you for your generous hospitality, I enjoyed the visit and learning what it is like to hobby beekeep at Virgina Beach USA.

I am currently on a tour of America visiting beekeepers, in hopes of sharing experiences and values of what it is like to beekeep in each others country. I want to give a shout out to Bee Downtown, North Carolina for hosting me and giving me a tour of their amazing complex. Bee Downtown specializes in Roof Top beekeeping providing an important service of pollination to metropolitan city centres of North Carolina and New York.

Thank you Harrison and the Bee Downtown team, it was a pleasure meeting you all and learning about the experiences of North Carolina Beekeeping.

Raglan Apiaries would like to introduce a new member to its honey family

The Kanuka forest blend

Kanuka forest blend is an exquisite blend of New Zealand tea tree/Forest Kanuka (Kunzea Robusta) and the New Zealand Honey suckle tree (Rewarewa) or Knightia Excelsa, this is followed by floral notes of other native flowers.

Gathered by Raglan Apiaries Beehives, nested among the non-polluted forests of Waikato, New Zealand, the Kanuka forest blend is a true representation of New Zealand Bush honey lead by the herbal taste of The New Zealand tea tree.

A beautiful malt flavored tone with an aromatic herbal after taste, the Kanuka forest blend will make an ideal companion with raw lemon and ginger excellent for a cold winter night drink.

If you are ever in Taupo, stop by Huka Honey Hive and check out the fantastic honey range. You will spot our Kanuka Blend and Coastal honey 🍯 🙂