Why buy honey from a registered beekeeper?

There are so many beekeepers out there and so much choice for honey… which is great! So why should you buy from a registered beekeeper?

Beekeeping is like any other form of caring for an animal. There are certain things you need to know and do to ensure that your bees are happy and healthy. There are also levy’s that must be paid which go towards benefitting the industry as a whole, in a beekeepers case this is the American Foul Brood (AFB) levy.

If you keep bees in New Zealand it is a legal requirement to register as a beekeeper. Once you’re registered you are assigned a unique number to display on your hives/ apiaries. You also need to update your number of colonies annually as well as make sure you are getting your hives inspected by a qualified beekeeper atleast once a year. Some beekeepers are also members of Apiculture NZ, our national industry body and adhere to a number of other standards of caring for their bees and producing honey such as the New Zealand Honey Bee care code and the Apiculture NZ Beekeeper Code of Conduct.

So why should you purchase honey from a registered beekeeper? (And not from Facebook marketplace)

Although it can be cheaper to purchase honey from Facebook or another similar platform it’s really important for the apiculture industry that those beekeepers who are following the rules are supported. They are making sure to keep our bee population healthy for years to come, with adequate monitoring and treatments for the parasitic varroa mite as well as regular disease checks and compliance for American Foul Brood (AFB). This comes at a cost to them and hence their products may be slightly more costly than those who are not registered.