New Zealand Beekeeping HistoryMarketing, people and beekeeping politics…

This is the start of a history of the NZ beekeeping industry, with strands of interest in the National Beekeepers' Association, honey marketing structures and other factors that brought the industry to where it is today.

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.

1935

The 1934/35 season was very disappointing. Many districts had only half of an average crop. It was estimated the crop would be overall about three-quarters of a normal season’s crop. Local prices had risen somewhat over the previous two seasons. Mr WE Barker of Peel Forest died in early 1935. Mr Barker had been a […]

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1934

NZ Honey Ltd began operations in earnest in 1934, claiming the control of 75% of the Dominion’s production. Price cutting continued, however, on the local market. The 1933/34 honey season had been relatively disappointing, with unselttled summer conditions. With many producers having to pay back the over advances from the HPA from previous years’ exports, […]

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1933

The cessation of the HPA as a stabilising agent on local pricing was immediately felt. One packer was offered 10 tons of 92 point honey at 2½ d per pound. The situation was so bad that even with the disappointments and the liabilities in the windup of the HPA most of the larger producers formed […]

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1932

Though economics of the industry were not particularly sound, bee colony numbers grew for the third year in a row, to 110,635, and a total of about 7,500, an increase from the mid-1920s. On 26 July, at a meeting immediately prior to Conference, the HPA placed itself into voluntary liquidation. At a subsequent meeting it […]

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1931

An unnamed Waikato beekeeper (Mr TJ Mannix of Waihou, Thames?) secured a crop of 75 tons, a record for New Zealand. There were 99,855 colonies of bees. Mr EW Sage and Mr PA Hillary were elected to the Board of Directors of the HPA. The 1931 Conference was held in Christchurch on 17 and 18 […]

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1930

The 1929/30 honey season was the worst for 15 years, probably only one third of the previous season’s record crop. There were, at the time, 88,716 bee colonies. The 1930 Annual Conference was held at the Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s Hall in Auckland from 15 to 17 July. The Conference was presided over by the […]

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1929

While in the earlier period HPA members had been loyal in not competing with their association, by 1929 HPA members were using the Association for the disposal of honey only when it suited them. The loss of the higher return on the local market made the HPA more and more dependent on the export market […]

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1928

The 1927/28 honey crop was one of the largest ever experienced. In total 1,029 tons were exported. Many producers sent their entire crop into the grade stores for export, as the local market prices were still low with some producers quitting at any price obtainable, just to get rid of the their surpluses. By April […]

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1927

The local market was fully stocked with honey, resulting in severe pricecutting. The 14th Annual Conference elected Mr R Clark as President, and Mr CA Pope as Vice President. Executive elected were Mr A Bates (Kaponga), Mr AH Davies, Mr R Gibb (Menzies Ferry) and Mr GL Hight. Revised Apiaries Act. The first true Thin […]

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1926

In the 1926 year the HPA sold 377 ½ tons in bulk and packed 206 tons. Mr AH Davies was elected President, with Mr R Clark as Vice President.

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