The Art of Beekeeping

·
4 min read

As we finish off the harvest, removing the last of the honey boxes and getting our bees ready to winter down, we find ourselves reflecting on the season and the art of working with bees. Although beekeeping certainly has its scientific aspects, it really is as much an Art as it is a Science. Every hive is unique and every season brings a whole range of environmental factors that must be taken into account.Experience plays a huge role when it comes to caring for bees, along with the intuition that only comes from years of work and being connected to what you are doing. Perhaps that’s why beekeeping is often a family business, with knowledge being passed down through generations.This season we’ve certainly had our challenges, with less than ideal weather conditions

Pure and Simple: Honey As it Should Be

·
4 min read

These days, more and more people are questioning not only where their food comes from, but also what that food contains. That’s why we go to great lengths to ensure our honey is just like nature intended.However, there are still many things that we must keep an eye on to make sure that it stays that way…The recent news about Japan questioning glyphosates in New Zealand honey exports is just part of a wider debate about unwanted chemicals making their way into food. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, including in New Zealand. Around 90 herbicides contain this chemical, with the most recognised brand being Roundup.At Mountain Valley Honey we employ an accredited laboratory to check for glyphosates in our honey, as part of our honey testi

A Moment of Pure Gold: The First Honey of a New Season

·
4 min read

This is a favourite time of the year for beekeepers, because we get to open the first honey boxes of the season. Every year we find ourselves getting excited, like little kids waiting for Christmas Day. The honey boxes even look like presents, just waiting to be unwrapped.The first of the honey boxes have already made their way to the extraction shed, and the whole place is perfumed with the rich scent of Kāmahi — the first honey of our season. The aroma makes Nicky particularly happy. She says she loves the way kāmahi looks when it pours: “Kāmahi has a special golden colour and just seems to glow as it pours into the jars.” Everyone on our team has their favourite honey, and Nicky’s is definitely Kāmahi.With the harvest underway, the boys in the shed are getting i

2020 is Nearly Done – Still Happily Buzzing Along

·
4 min read

The sun is out, the spring winds have dropped, and our bees are happy. It’s time to give a huge sigh of relief and reflect on the crazy year that was.We New Zealanders are so privileged to be able to enjoy a Christmas spent with family and friends. As we buzz about looking for festive treats, our bees are foraging for goodies too. At this time of year, they are continuing to work the Kāmahi and are just beginning to discover the early flowering Mānuka. The busy little creatures are so intent on their honey collection that they pay no attention to us at all. So, we will pretty much leave them to it over the Christmas break — just checking in once or twice, to make sure they are happily working and have strong hives.  As our team takes time to reflect on

Sustainability — it’s not just a Buzzword.

·
4 min read

Sustainability is close to our hearts at Mountain Valley Honey. In fact, it is at the heart of everything we do, and we are always on the lookout for new ways to reduce waste and help the environment. Our attitude to sustainability is reflected in the way we manage our hives. Our bees need a nice clear entry to their hives, but we never use sprays to keep the grass and weeds at bay. We much prefer to get stuck in with a scrub cutter and good old-fashioned manual labour.It’s harder work, especially in a bee suit on a hot day, but the less chemicals we can use in our practices, the happier we are — and bees everywhere appreciate that too.The wilderness location of our hives does pose significant challenges for being environmentally aware since long drives into the

An Ancient Love of Honey – The Gift of Nature

·
3 min read

Even after so many years working with bees, we still think there is something quite miraculous about honey – it truly is a gift from nature.Since ancient times, people have revered honey. The Greeks called honey ‘the nectar of the gods,’ and made special honey cakes as offerings to keep the gods on-side.Some scholars even think that ambrosia, the legendary food of the gods, might have been a type of honey. But it was not just the Greeks — honey has associations across many ancient cultures. One of our favourite examples comes from Egypt, where it was believed that bees were the tears of the sun god Ra. Isn’t that a fantastic image? The bee is the symbol of the Hindu gods, Vishnu and Krishna, as well as many other deities.Beehives in ancient Rome were lar

Hunkering Down for Winter – Nelson Style

·
3 min read

Winter in Nelson can be such a delight. Log fires, night skies studded with the Matariki stars, crisp walks on the beach, and winter sunshine catching the snow on the mountains. Perfect. It’s also a time when many Nelsonian’s enjoy indulging in a wee bit of hibernation. The cold weather gives us the perfect excuse to take a rest from our gardening and adventure activities, and snuggle up by the fire instead. Our bees love to hunker down in the winter too. Mostly they huddle together in their hives, with some worker bees venturing out if it gets warm enough. For bees, that means around 8-10 degrees — which just goes to show what sensible little creatures they are. Our beekeepers take care not to disturb the bees too much over winter. They just make

Into the Honey Pot — and Beyond.

·
2 min read

The journey of our honey, from the hive to the pot, and finally to our customers, is made up of a series of very special moments. Whether it is a single healthy bee landing on a wildflower or the careful smoothing of a label, we believe each and every moment contributes to making our honey so special. That’s why we love being hands-on at every stage, taking pride in all the little things that really make a difference.Our philosophy of being as gentle as we can, so as to ensure our honey retains all of its natural goodness, is reflected in our decanting process.  It takes 5-7 days to slowly bring a batch of honey up to the same temperature it would be in the hive — around 35 degrees Celsius. Honey at this temperature flows beautifully into the packing ta

The Sticky Business of Honey Extraction

·
3 min read

We think that extracting honey has to be the best smelling job in the world, and it’s probably the stickiest! At extraction time, from Summer to mid-Autumn, our warehouse becomes a hive of activity. Packed with loaded honey boxes, the whole place is rich with the scent of honey. It’s almost as if summer lingers on for a while, with the delicious floral aromas really taking us back to those glorious harvest days in the South Island wilderness. Our philosophy for extraction is to keep things simple. We are passionate about ensuring that our honey retains all its natural enzymes and antibacterial properties. That means doing as little as possible in terms of processing. There’s no creaming here.However, while extraction might be a simple process for us, it is a se

Harvesting Manuka Honey from Top Secret Locations in the New Zealand Wilderness

·
4 min read

Beekeeping doesn’t exactly spring to mind when people are asked to name an action-packed job. However, during the Mānuka honey harvest, we sometimes feel as if we are on the set of a James Bond movie — starring Murray Elwood instead of Daniel Craig. What with the stunning mountain scenery, top-secret locations, a swooping helicopter, and the very real danger of getting a bee stuck in your hair, it certainly is an exhilarating part of our honey’s journey from the hive to the pot. But for us, the Mānuka honey harvest is not simply some sort of high-adrenaline gold rush. We put a lot of careful thought and planning into ensuring that our harvest is sustainable, ethical and good for bees. While the majority of our hives will remain in the same location throu

It’s the Little Things that Count

·
2 min read

Nelson is such a vibrant and exciting place in summer, with everyone taking to the beaches, mountains and rivers. At Mountain Valley Honey we are full of excitement too, and anticipation — because summer is when we finally see the results of the year’s hard work. Last week we began the extraction of this season’s honey. As always, it was a pure delight to retrieve those first few boxes of the summer, all fragrant and oozing with sticky goodness. It is one of those little joys that makes our job so rewarding and marks the beginning of our most thrilling time of the year.In the summertime, our bees are really out in force, having built up their numbers over spring. Now our hives are truly buzzing away, each with up to 50,000 bees inside. The honey boxes, which we loca

It’s not just about the honey!

·
2 min read

Spring has well and truly arrived in Nelson and that means a change of scene for some of our Mountain Valley Honey bees.Beginning around October, when the days grow warm with sunshine and soft breezes, our bees go on a special working holiday — into the local orchards to help pollinate fruit trees and vines. Lending a helping hand with pollination around the Nelson region has been a long-standing tradition in our company, and one that runs in the family. “I’ve been pollinating for around 28 years” says owner, Murray Elwood. “It feels like forever – but Dad was pollinating well before me. Makes me sound old!” This treasured relationship with local farmers goes right back to when Murray’s dad, Merv was just starting out. Working in the