Eight Down to Seven – Honey & Bees Members to Choose Foundational Directors

(Editor's note – changes have been made to this story and its headline since it was originally published, due to potential director Keith Rodie withdrawing his nomination after the deadline for nominations closed.)

The next step in the genesis of New Zealand beekeepers’ latest industry group, Honey and Bees New Zealand (H&BNZ), will see members tasked with whittling a group of eight potential directors down to seven. With nominations now in, emerging are contenders high in beekeeping passion and business ownership acumen, but many light on governance experience.

Nominations closed Monday July 13, and now the onus moves to the rest of the commercial beekeeper membership of the group which succeeds Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ) to make their choice of who is best suited to fill the initial one-year board term. As of July 15 around 120 commercial beekeepers – and thus potential full voting members – had signed up to H&BNZ, but some membership invoices remain outstanding, making exact voting numbers uncertain.

“This is a good outcome,” says Ian Fletcher of what was at the time nine applicants for seven positions (until the after-deadline withdraw of North Island beekeeper Keith Rodie). Fletcher has been heavily involved in an advisory role to shape the new constitution for H&BNZ and assisting the transition from ApiNZ to the new group in the past month.

“Now, if a board member is elected rather than appointed, they have a proper mandate … it is a more legitimised process.”

It’s an all-male group to choose from, with Peter Bell, Murray Bush, Matt Goldsworthy and Barry Hantz from the South Island, and Cameron Martin, Julian McCurdy, Jaime McRae and Ben Stewart from the North Island. All have at least 14 years’ experience in commercial beekeeping roles – and some nearing half a century – all currently or recently have owned beekeeping businesses, five come from inter-generational beekeeping families, and four have experience around national-level board tables of beekeeping groups.

Voting will open on Tuesday July 21 and close at 5pm on Friday July 24, with members having until 5pm on July 20 to become financial and thus earn a vote.

Peter Bell

Peter Bell has effectively been here done this before, on the interim working group which oversaw the merger of the National Beekeepers’ Association (NBA) with Federated Farmers Bee Industry Group, leading to ApiNZ in 2016. Now in his final beekeeping season before retirement, he has spent his entire working career in beekeeping, owning MacKenzie Country Honey in Twizel. That business has now passed to Bell’s son, and two other sons have also turned to beekeeping careers.

Peter Bell.

Clearly tightly tied to the industry – Mackenzie Country Honey were first Bee Industry Group members and then ApiNZ for the past 10 years – Bell would also bring considerable governance experience. He’s sat on the Twizel Community Board for six years, three as chair, worked a similar split on the board of the High Country Medical Trust, plus sat on the High Country Health board for the past five years. Added to that is a three-year stint on the board of Betta Bees Ltd. bee breeding programme.

“I know the importance of doing things properly,” Bell says.

While he might have vast experience in the industry, Bell says he wants to take on a role with H&BNZ to look forward, not back, and that ensuring there is a good group to represent beekeepers to government motivates him.

“It is tiring when people use the excuse of the organisation not being organised, and so they shouldn’t have to pay anything. You take that excuse away by having a well-run organisation and then they have to put their hand in the pocket and fund it as well,” he says.

Murray Bush

Also recently-retired and with a life-time of beekeeping experience to lean on is Marlborough beekeeping identity Murray Bush, his family having kept hives in the region for more than 100 years through three generations until the business sold two years ago. He was an NBA member until 2016 and then a New Zealand Beekeeping Inc (NZBI) member 2016-19 before looking in from the outside since.

Murray Bush.

Bush says he has put his name forward because he sees H&BNZ as “a generational opportunity to make a difference”.

“If beekeepers want to create a positive environment to pass on to the next generation coming through, this is when they have to put their hands up and say ‘whatever has happened has happened, it doesn’t matter, but how do we make the future more inclusive?’. Now is the chance for that.”

He believes that, while there will be many tasks for the board to tackle in year one, ensuring the “grassroots beekeeper” has confidence in the organisation should be the overall priority. Having kept a very close eye on industry goings on since retiring in 2024, after 38 years in business, Bush says he still has the passion and energy to help.

“I may no longer have direct hive ownership and some may find that unacceptable, but when it has been in your blood for so long you just want to see it succeed and the next generation needs all the help it can get. If I can provide that help, then fantastic,” he says.

Matt Goldsworthy

Coincidentally, also stepping forward with a desire to assist the new group is the man who took over Bush’s hives in 2024, Matt Goldsworthy. He heads Goldsworthy Apiaries which has grown over five years to a diverse and substantial operation with 4000 hives spread across the top of the South Island undertaking honey, queen and nuc production, pollination services, honey packing and contract extraction. The move to business ownership for Goldsworthy followed a thorough apprenticeship as a commercial beekeeper, now 18 years in total, including a stint as Taylor Pass Honey Company’s head beekeeper in Marlborough.

Matt Goldsworthy.

“Honey bees are a big passion for me and I want to try and help, I want to see this industry succeed,” Goldsworthy says.

“There is nothing else I would be doing if I couldn’t be beekeeping. So, if there is something I can do to help get things set back up, then I want to do it.”

Having grown his own business while many in the industry contracted or exited entirely, Goldsworthy’s skillset could prove valuable to an industry body looking to build from a low base.

“There are people around the industry with big picture ideas, but we just need to get some runs on the board. We have to get buy-in, more support. To do that, we need some small wins. We can work on a 10 year, five year, plan, whatever it is, but in the first year we need to get small projects happening to get people in behind it.”

Barry Hantz

Rounding out the four South Island applicants is Hantz Honey owner, Barry Hantz, who from their Canterbury base oversees 5000 hives for honey production and pollination, as well as extraction and honey packing. Hantz has supported ApiNZ since its inception and was on the Federated Farmers Bee executive at the time of the merger, meaning he too has seen close-up the genesis of a beekeeping industry body.

Barry Hantz.

“I’m pretty keen to get everybody into one organisation so that we are all on the same page. I have been through 25 years of ‘this side and that side’ and the time has come, and everyone probably realises it now, that we need to be in one organisation,” Hantz says.

He is a third-generation beekeeper with 25 years in the hives, following an earlier career as a diesel mechanic. He mixes Hantz Honey ownership with running the New Zealand franchise for EzyLoader, vehicle-mounted loading system.

The Canterbury beekeeper sees the first 12 months of the new group as focused on “getting the organisation operational” and determining the best projects to pursue, and is realistic about what is achievable if more members are not obtained.

“You can’t do too much until you are all in the same camp and if you only get half the beekeepers join then we are either going to only be able to do half the jobs we want to, or we will do every job half-hearted. Therefore, we need everybody in the game and to get involved,” Hantz says.

Cameron Martin

Should he be elected, second generation Bay of Plenty beekeeper Cameron Martin would occupy a seat at the board table having slid in from the transitionary group helping form H&BNZ and also from a current role on the executive of NZBI, which is encouraging their members to join the new group.

Cameron Martin.

“I have always agreed with a commercial-beekeeping focused group. I get the whole idea of bringing everyone in, such as with ApiNZ, but a commercial beekeeping focus is more my style,” Martin says.

Having completed a Parks and Recreation bachelors degree at Lincoln University in the 1990s, Martin soon returned home to the family beekeeping business, Galatea Apiaries, now running 1600 hives into pasture and bush honey production and pollination.

Martin says he would enter the board ready to listen to a diverse range of views, but working to ensure commercial beekeeping succeeds.

“When you have been in the bee business long enough you are aware of the strong opinions people hold and you want an environment where people can do that,” he says.

“We have such an important industry and I don’t want that forgotten about at a government level. The focus has to be on commercial beekeeping remaining profitable and sustainable. The rest of the industry is built on that foundation of a healthy commercial beekeeping side of things. Without that there are no products to market or export. I am keen for Honey and Bees NZ to get that right and the rest of the industry should benefit,” he says.

Julian McCurdy

Also following his father’s footsteps in taking up the hive-tool is Julian McCurdy, who combines managing Forrest and Bees Native Honey’s 700 hive business in Taranaki with ownership of BuzzTech Apiculture, beekeeping management software.

Julian McCurdy.

Following a career in corporate IT infrastructure, McCurdy’s beekeeping career began in 2010 and he says his desire to problem solve was stimulated right from the start after seeing how poorly the varroa response was rolled out in his area.

“That was my introduction to the industry and then also seeing ApiWeb, how hives were registered, and the whole AFB system. Coming at it from the background I had there was room for improvement.”

He says he has made suggestions in the background to industry leaders, but not seen them implemented, so now hopes to be able to assist from the board table and bring awareness to areas needing attention.

“We don’t even understand all the problems we are facing. We are on a burning platform and we have to do something. It takes some serious people to be willing to step in and do that,” McCurdy says.

With family members involved in the dairy industry, McCurdy, an ApiNZ member, says the comparison between DairyNZ and how the beekeeping industry is led pains him, but he believes beekeepers now have no other option but to back H&BNZ.

“It is not a matter of joining to get this benefit and that benefit right now, it is a matter of, if you don’t join we are stagnant and go nowhere.”

Jaime McRae

Also on the ticket is another “J-Mac”, with ApiLife owner Jamie McRae looking to continue his industry leadership, having occupied a seat on NZBI’s executive over the past year and an equivalent role with Southern North Island Beekeeping Group. That role has seen McRae get a close up look at the yellow-legged hornet response and even submit a 24-36 month response plan to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). He says that sort of work has piqued his interest, especially in policy development.

Jaime McRae.

“What I presented was basically what should be happening and the engagement MPI should be having with the beekeepers and public, and what tools they should be using,” McRae says, listing AI camera feeder stations, thermal imagining and extended-range radio trackers as some of his suggestions.

McRae has 15 years of commercial beekeeping experience, which includes working for Comvita, Mānuka Health, True Honey Company and East Valley Honey, while his ApiLife business includes bulk mānuka honey production, queen breeding, pollination and consultancy work.

In 2014, at 21 years-old, he went before the courts on charges pertaining to stealing beehives and receiving stolen hives, which McRae says he accepted the charges “to get it over and done with”. Twelve years later, he says the indiscretion is behind him, hopes it doesn’t limit his ability to help an industry he is deeply passionate about, and that he hopes his work since speaks for itself.

“It definitely does and I have been involved in a lot of things since. I have been hired onto these boards with them knowing that. It is in the past. It’s there and it is available for people to find if they want to search for it, but I am trying to move away from that and focus on the good things I can do,” he says.

“I am keen to get involved as much as possible because I like beekeeping and I see myself doing it until I die.”

Ben Stewart

Also bringing a second-generation beekeepers’ level of experience, having taken over the family business following a career in IT, is Bee Farm owner Ben Stewart. Operating 1000 hives out of Gisborne, Stewart entered the business 14 years ago and, after a period packing between 300 and 400 tonnes of honey a year, they have moved to a pollination and honey production business.

Ben Stewart.

Stewart says while he was once an ApiNZ member he let that lapse, no longer seeing the benefit of the group. A major initial task of the new board will be to determine who they represent he believes.

“The first thing we need to do is define what a commercial beekeeper is. Then we really need to discuss inclusion of everyone in the industry and the various stakeholders and how far that extends … If we are going to have any support from MPI or the like to open doors for us then we are going to have to get support from the majority of hive numbers. We have a bit of work to do there.”

The Gisborne beekeeper has previously worked for Oha Honey, and run his own IT contracting business.

The need to develop a “framework” in the first year of operation for H&BNZ to build from has been mentioned by several of the candidates and Stewart sums up that sentiment too.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity. It will be an interesting year for sure and there will be a lot to discuss and move forward with, but this is a good start.”

More information on Honey & Bees NZ and how to join is available here.