Comvita + Beekeeping

It all started in 1974, connecting people to nature and good health, and today Comvita continues that vision by researching and selecting sources of natural ingredients, carefully tending and harvesting them to preserve their purity. Comvita is committed to sustainable beekeeping and undertakes numerous activities to ensure the health and happiness of their bee colonies. Here are just a few examples:
Hives: They use all-wooden, untreated boxes, with predominately wooden frames in the brood nest.
Floral source: Collecting honey from New Zealand native floral sources means that these flowers are far less likely to have been sprayed than commercial flowers.  Some of Comvita’s collection points are in the most remote, marginal land in NZ – beautiful and unspoilt.

Honey Collection: At harvest time they use two methods:  Beescapes (a split board that separates the brood chamber from the honey boxes) at least five hours before removing the honey boxes. This is both ethical and bee-friendly as the bees leave the honey boxes overnight and the boxes are generally free of bees at harvest.

Blow method – this simply uses high pressure air flow to push  the bees out from the honey boxes.  They are unscathed by the experience and quickly crawl back into their hives. Comvita do not  use any chemicals or fumigants to remove bees from their honey boxes. When taking honey off they only take honey stored in honey boxes, and they never take honey from the brood nest.  They do feed some sugar but only to ensure colony survival and at minimum amounts.

Colony care: Comvita’s thorough hive care practices (based on 40 years’ experience) ensure that the colony is kept clean and healthy, meaning the bees are in tip-top shape all year round, and they make every effort to minimise chemical treatments for varroa and are working towards breeding varroa resistant bee stocks.

Comvita is committed to the surety of supply of high quality natural ingredients. They are identifying opportunities for the sustainable use of marginal land through Manuka plantation development and partnerships. The plantation planning involves the identification of suitable companion planting programmes to ensure balanced nutrition and the maintenance of bee health. Comvita’s Apiary Management System provides traceability and visibility through the entire beekeeping operations.  Comvita’s Manuka honey is available online at http://www.comvita.co.nz