It is also the portal to the NZ Beekeeping Digital Archive.
More recent history? See NZ's first bkpg website as it was at the end of 2000, the first year of a varroa incursion.
And the NBA site from about a year later, the end of 2001.
1945
As servicemen returned from overseas and existing beekeepers began to increase hive numbers again, interest turned to the cost of establishing hives. Mr CR Paterson, Apiary Instructor at Hamilton, provided figures to set up 100 colonies of bees. Including the costs of the nucleus units to stock them with bees and 10 pounds of sugar […]
1944
A competition was announced for the next issue of the magazine. It called for suggestions for a plan for the NZ honey industry for the post war period, given that the current regulations would lapse six months after the war. While no prize was to be provided, the “honour and glory of contributing something constructive” […]
1943
The first issue of the 1943 NZ Beekeeper announced the new Honey Marketing Regulations and the Government’s policy on stabilisation of prices, costs, salaries and wages. Beekeepers were keenly aware of increased costs and frozen returns, pinning hope on the “illusory bigger honey crop”. The price of farm products, including honey, were to be held, […]
1942
The general trends in beekeeping were summarised by the Horticulture Division of the Department of Agriculture in early 1942. Season Beekeepers Hives 1919-20 6,392 69,877 1929-30 6,925 104,239 1940-41 5,248 136,362 Of the total, 1,299 were considered to be commercial beekeepers (having more than 10 hives). The total honey production (commercial and domestic) was estimated […]
1941
Producer/packers were urged by the IMD to reconsider their packing operations in light of the new premises the IMD was soon to open in Auckland. The up-to-date equipment for handling and packing honey would mean packers should review their operations and give consideration to reducing their packing to local supply and sending the bulk of […]
1940
The editorial for the first issue of the 1940 NZ Beekeeper marked the centennial year of “organised settlement and colonisation of the Dominion”. The editorial was positive in tone, indicating that “prospects for both local and export markets are at the present time really good” notwithstanding “the state of war in which the Dominion finds […]
1939
It was January 20, 1939, that Volume 1, Number 1 of The New Zealand Beekeeper magazine was published. Prior to that, there had been various other magazines and beekeeping publications. For a time back in the 1920s beekeeping was covered in one section of a magazine also containing poultry and other animals. In the 1930s […]
1938
It wasn’t until the Labour Government took office that any actions were taken on the issue of a single authority for both local and export markets. In 1938 the recently formed Internal Marketing Division took over NZ Honey Ltd’s business and plant at valuation. NZ Honey Ltd was wound up by paying back all shares […]
1937
The New Zealand Smallholder ceased publication in early 1937, leaving the NBA without an ‘official organ’. At some point, probably early in 1937, the Dominion Beekeepers’ Association was formed. The 1936/37 season was described as one of the worst in over 20 years for the Waikato. While some areas of the country had a satisfactory […]
1936
Shareholders of the HPA faced legal actions brought by the liquidator of the company. Messrs E and E Morton Ltd, the HPA’s agents in England, still had a claim of £17,000 against the company for overpayment of advances, which the shareholders were liable for. The Government agreed to loan the industry the sum of £10,000 […]