Avondale beekeeper tastes sweet success

An Avondale woman has tasted sweet success thanks to a unique recipe which harvests honey from beehives across Auckland.

Honey maker Vickie Wade won the Shield Trophy for Best Honey on April 9 at the Auckland Beekeepers Club (ABC) Open Day held at Unitec in Mt Albert.

Ms Wade’s entries were judged to be winners in nine categories. She will now represent Auckland and attend the Apiculture New Zealand National Conference over three days, held in Rotorua in June.

She said her winning entries consisted of several liquid honey, a wax block, a honey comb and a honey frame.

Photo by: Ngarima Ioasa

Ms Wade encourages novice beekeepers to enter the honey competition. “It is the only time you will not be up against the big players. I was up against honey makers who had won this prize for decades,” said Ms Wade.

Ms Wade’s foray into honey making began three years ago when she won the Novice Shield title in 2014 and then again in 2015.

Her honey is harvested in small individual batches from each suburb in Auckland.

“We have 30 beehives across Auckland. This gives us a honey that is very unique to each area, it smells different, tastes different and has different textures,” said Ms Wade.

Her interest in beekeeping arose when she joined the ABC after a shortage of bees was identified a few years ago.

“You can save the world, one beehive at a time. It’s a lot of fun,” said Ms Wade.

Photo by: Ngarima Ioasa

The ABC open day educated the public about the importance of bees.

Paul Walsh, the apiary manager for the ABC, said beekeeping had become more popular with the commercial interest in manuka honey.

“Bees are responsible for a third of our diet. Bee pollination of plants,with their clover contributing to the development of nitrogen needed for all agriculture.

“This contributes to the feed required for the meat industry. Our national export," Mr Walsh said.

Another bee enthusiast, Paul Thomas, said as the season changes, beehives require pre-winter maintenance and treatments.

"The honey run is done, the bee season is over until spring," said Mr Thomas.