Yule be Working Through Summer

Bask in warm December air, bees are working everywhere. Mountains, valleys, farm and fields, every buzz increasing yields of viscous, trickling, sticky stuff – us beekeepers just can’t get enough.

Beekeeping’s not always fun; cue sweating, unrelenting sun. Holiday makers relax, while we relay stacks and stacks of boxes on our coastal runs, honey filling every one.

Chasing nectar, chasing gold, blankets of white, but it’s not cold. The manuka flowered hard and fast, by Christmas time it’s almost past. In our case though it’s not the last…

Honey producing floral crop, blackberry pumps, we get a lot. Lotus major likes the heat, the ground is yellow, air is sweet. Towai flows, rata may bloom, a sporadic fruition of bee perfume.

Catsear suffocates the hills, and thistle honey is hoped for still. Rubbing shoulders with tarweed and clover, potential flow is still not over.

“The manuka flowered hard and fast, by Christmas time it’s almost past. In our case though it’s not the last…” goes the verse for Aimz in the Bay of Plenty this summer

Last but not least, a koromiko feast. Nectar, delicate and clear, leaves to be used for diarrhoea. An ace up your sleeve when you’re chasing the flow, the magic of plants is a good thing to know.

On the home front, with the change of year, it’s time to rejoice with those we hold dear. Put down the hive tool and kick off the boots, unzip your veils and shrug off the suits. Lean into love, and family, and play. Make time for yourself, even just for a day.

For tomorrow, tomorrow we work.

The extracting shed’s set, paint no longer wet, that pesky nib wall has been fixed. The pricker bank’s new, the seals are too, and the plumbing’s all been affixed.

Jars have been ordered and drums have been cleaned, we’ve cleared out the shed and the gear’s all been screened. The trucks have been washed and the concrete’s clean too, it seems these keepers need some beeing to do…

While holiday makers idle, we thrash the hive tools.

Blowing bees and checking disease, harvesting honey in thirty degrees. Hard on the back, tough on the knees, wading through hundreds of thousands of bees.

Aimz stays ahead of the oxalic acid vaporiser, and with it, hopefully, the varroa mites.

Stacking the truck is a fun job at best, weightlifting comp I can attest. With a new guy on board, I hope he can swim, I know what he’s doing, it’s better than gym. Let’s just hope he can handle the pace, to wind up a compliment to our workplace.

And a nod to surveillance, we can’t be complacent, liberty comes at a price. Varroa counts low as our sticky boards show after gassing them with our device. Oxalic vapour through the hives front door stops phoretic mites in their tracks. No sign of bees damaged, it seems we have managed to keep the scourge off of our backs.

But the time will soon come when summer is done, the wasps will begin to advance. With Vespex in hand, at a sheltered stand, those invaders won’t stand a chance.

Though the future seems distant, work is persistent, and extracting is not far away. Pricking and spinning, it’s just the beginning, but I’ll take the reprieve today.

The bees, they are humming, the sun, it is sunning, the glory of nature is true. The beauty of being amidst of this feeling will encompass the goodness in you.

So today, I’ll take time with my family, make merry, and just have a ball.

A happy new year to my readers, safe travels and peace to you all.

Aimz.

Aimz is a second-generation commercial beekeeper in the Bay of Plenty who took up the hive tool fulltime at the end of the 2024 honey season. Formerly a stay-at-home mum to four kids, she has now found her footing in the family business.