News • Ecrotek

Old pets, new hives

For the most part, bees, pets and other domestic animals can coexist happily, but there’s always the potential for harm. The larger the property, the easier it is to keep your pets away from your hives. Simply choose a spot with low traffic, away from cages, coops and kennels, and you should be fine.

Honey is great, but there’s more!

You might think of beekeeping as being all about honey, but it’s a whole lot more than that. Bees produce honey, sure, but along the way they create several other products that are useful to us humans. Propolis, beeswax and royal jelly are just some of the marketable substances beekeepers can harvest from their hives.

Irritating Invaders

As anyone with a kitchen knows, ants are annoying scavengers. They’re constantly on the lookout for new food sources, and will use the tiniest entry point to gain access. If your kitchen is particularly messy – with food left on bench tops or jars left open – you may be more likely to attract these tiny invaders. It’s a similar story with your beehives.

Learn, Save the Bees

A bee or not a bee?

If you’re a new beekeeper, or you’re simply interested in the insects that populate your garden, it’s good to be able to differentiate between the honey bees you’re caring for, other harmless species of bee and fly, and potential threats like wasps.

Learn, How-To, Getting Started

Selling your honey

Everyone knows that bees make honey, but beginner beekeepers are often surprised by exactly how much they produce.

Powerful properties in an unexpected package

The powerful health benefits associated with manuka honey have made it a huge success story for New Zealand exporters. Manuka’s cousin, kanuka, is far less famous – but may be equally beneficial.

Learn, Disease, Health

The spread of a deadly disease

American Foulbrood strikes fear into the hearts of beekeepers – and for good reason. The bacterial disease infects larvae, kills bees before they reach maturity, and eventually destroys the colony.

Swarm Spotting

The idea of a bee swarm is pretty alarming to most people. We imagine a horde of aggressive bees crawling over us and covering us with stings – scary stuff. But in reality, swarming is natural bee behaviour, and in this state bees are usually fairly docile and harmless. As summer approaches, it’s good to know what to do about swarms without hurting the bees – or yourself.

Heat and Honey don't mix

For many beekeepers, honey is considered liquid gold - but few often realize how complex honey really is. Heating honey is surprisingly controversial, while it’s true that overheating honey can kill off the enzymes and antioxidants that make it so beneficial, claims that heated honey is actually poisonous have yet to be proven.