| 9 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Heathstock Apiaries Kelly Deeks Sustainable producer bounces back Heathstock Apiaries is now regrowing its organic production with about half of its 1500 to 1600 hives certified organic, and more to come. Perriam & Partners Ltd Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors Proudly supporting Heathstock Apiaries Limited good advice is on the cards always North Canterbury honey producer Heathstock Apiaries has been recognised by the industry for its sustainable practices, taking out the ApiNZ Sustainability Best Practice Award at the 2022 Apiculture New Zealand National Conference. Heathstock Apiaries is a second generation family business, started near Hawarden in the Hurunui District by Bruce McCusker after his brother Ross gave him his first beehive as a wedding gift. Forty years and a thousand-odd beehives later, the strong family business and passion for beekeeping remains, now in the hands of Mark and Amy McCusker. Originally an entirely organic operation, Heathstock Apiaries had to decrease its number of organic hives when the invasive Varroa mite arrived in New Zealand in 2000 and quickly spread through the country. The Varroa mite is a devastating pest that feeds and reproduces on bee larvae and pupae in the developing brood, as well as transmitting viruses. “Varroa mite is still the biggest pest we have to manage,” Mark says. “If you’re not on top of that, you’re not going to have a strong hive.” The management of Varroa mite was initially too challenging to do organically, but now a new organic treatment technique is allowing Heathstock Apiaries to start converting the whole operation back to organic. The treatment uses oxalic acid in a new method, improving its performance to create a natural treatment that closely rivals the effectiveness of synthetic insecticide options. Heathstock Apiaries is now regrowing its organic production with about half of its 1500 to 1600 hives certified organic, and more to come. Mark says this year’s award gives Heathstock Apiaries recognition and positive reinforcement around its business practices, where quality hive management is prioritised over quantity of hives. ”We do everything we can to get a hive to perform, and for us that means we run two queens in every beehive.” This unconventional management technique was initiated by Bruce and Ross in the 1990s, when they were selling honeycomb into Japan. “The Japanese wanted every comb to be capped with honey, and in a one queen hive, the corners wouldn’t always get finished.” The introduction of a second queen would allow bees to produce a significantly higher crop, and get all of those combs capped. “Two queens works really well for us here in North Canterbury, where the micro-climate in the Waipara Gorge gives us fantastic breeding and hive build up sites. Two queens are more labour intensive and produce really strong hives for the summer honey flows, and then for the rest of the year we don’t have as many hives to manage. This is where efficiency allows us to be more sustainable.” This year Mark and Amy are expanding their sustainable practices with the installation of solar panels from Endless Energy on their extraction plant, which is running at peak in the height of summer. They are installing just enough panels to run their business as the return of excess power to the grid is unfortunately very uneconomical. As Heathstock Apiaries continues to grow, Mark and Amy have partnership opportunities available to honey producers and food manufacturers who want to work with an established organic brand.
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