Beekeeping Teaser Experience incl. Take-Home Honey & Transport - Option for Half Day Be a Beekeeper, Full Day or Help Prepare Beehives for the Nectar Flow or Harvest Honey

Option One - Beekeeping Teaser Experience including take home honey and transport

• Meet the apiary
• Followed by a brief presentation and safety briefing
• You will be provided with a bee suit, gloves, gumboots and hive tool
• You will be shown the inside of beehives, along with a brief explanation of its structure and the different types of bees, nurse bees, drones, queen bee
• You will be able to "work" a second beehive with guidance from their experienced beekeeper
• You will get a chance to take photographs with the beehive and frames of bees
• You will get to find and name (you can name it with your own name or as a gift to a friend/family member) the queen bee. They will email you a certificate of your queen bee
• You will be provided with a ball of wax from the beehive you have worked
• Travelling time: 1 hour from Auckland City, beekeeping time: 90-120 minute

• Meet the apiary
• Followed by a brief presentation and safety briefing
• You will be provided with a bee suit, gloves, gumboots and hive tool
• You will be shown the inside of beehives, along with a brief explanation of its structure and the different types of bees, nurse bees, drones, queen bee
• You will be able to "work" a second beehive with guidance from their experienced beekeeper
• You will get a chance to take photographs with the beehive and frames of bees
• You will get to find and name (you can name it with your own name or as a gift to a friend/family member) the queen bee. They will email you a certificate of your queen bee
• You will be provided with a ball of wax and frame honey from the beehive you have worked
• You will "jump" into a ute and work a second apiary site with 1-2 banifide beekeepers
• Travelling time: 1 hour from Auckland City, beekeeping time: 4-5 hours

Option Three - Work as a beekeeper for a day

• Meet the apiary
• Followed by a brief presentation and safety briefing
• You will be provided with a bee suit, gloves, gumboots and hive tool
• You will be shown the inside of beehives, along with a brief explanation of its structure and the different types of bees, nurse bees, drones, queen bee
• You will be able to "work" a second beehive with guidance from their experienced beekeeper
• You will get a chance to take photographs with the beehive and frames of bees
• You will get to find and name (you can name it with your own name or as a gift to a friend/family member) the queen bee. We will email you a certificate of your queen bee
• You will be provided with a ball of wax and frame honey from the beehive you have worked
• You will "jump" into a ute and work a second apiary site with 1-2 banifide beekeepers
• Lunch will be provided, please advise if you have any food allergy
• Travelling time: 1 hour from Auckland City, beekeeping time: 8 hours

Option Four - Work as a Beekeeper to help prepare beehives for the nectar flow or harvest honey

• Includes one-night accommodation and half-day local tour
• You will be picked up from your house or a pre-agreed location
• You can choose to travel to our apiaries located at: Hokianga (Sept/Oct), Bay of Plenty (Oct/Nov), Tahaaroa (Nov/Dec), Turangi (Dec) or Taranaki (January)
• Upon arrival, you will check-in at your motel
• Then your guide will give you a brief presentation and safety briefing
• You will be provided with a bee suit, gloves, gumboots and hive tool
• You will be shown the inside of beehives, along with a brief explanation of its structure and the different types of bees, nurse bees, drones, queen bee
• You will be able to "work" a second beehive with guidance from their experienced beekeeper
• You will get a chance to take photographs with the beehive and frames of bees
• You will get to find and name (you can name it with your own name or as a gift to a friend/family member) the queen bee. We will email you a certificate of your queen bee
• You will be provided with a ball of wax and frame honey from the beehive you have worked.
• For the harvest theme, they will send you 10kg of personalised honey from the hives you have harvested (Leadtime will be 30 days)
• You will "jump" into a ute and work on as many apiary sites with 1-2 banifide beekeepers, in preparation for the nectar flow.
• Travelling time: 4 hours from Auckland City, beekeeping time: 5-8 hours

About Waitakaruru Honey Limited

At Waitakaruru Honey, they operate 600 hives across South Auckland, the Coromandel and Taranaki. They are a subsidiary of NZ Honey Innovations and their passion for beekeeping comes from their belief in the fact that bees form a vital part of our ecological and species' survival.

Their primary objective is to build an ecosystem that connects honey bees with the end-users of their hive-to-table raw and manuka honey via their MyBeehive app. They care deeply about the social and environmental impacts of beekeeping and prioritise these over pure commercial gain. They work hard to give back to the communities that house their beehives around Aotearoa via their Honey for Schools, Future Beez Apprentice program, Fair Trade Honey Scheme and also donate resources to prisons for their Apiculture courses, in order to improve opportunities for ex-offenders.