Meet the Bee-Keepers

We are beekeepers running 650 hives in the greater Waikato area in the North Island of New Zealand. We are based at Te Kowhai, a rural area with a mixture of dairy farms and small life style farm blocks 10kms northwest of the city of Hamilton. The Waikato is a very productive dairy area and the surrounding hill country is used for sheep and cattle farming.

We operate our business as a husband and wife team and call on the help of our family during their holiday times.

Our three eldest are studying at The University of Waikato and The Waikato Polytechnic and the youngest is at secondary school. The eldest three are keenly involved in music, learning the piano to an advanced level. While at school they were involved in the school orchestra, playing the flute, clarinet and violin respectively. The youngest is very interested in farming.

We have been beekeeping since 1976 producing a variety of honeys from New Zealand native trees such as manuka, kanuka, rewa rewa and kamahi as well as pasture honey.

We have produced the honey in extracted form and comb honey. Until recently we have sold our honey in bulk in 200 litre drums (44 gallon) to a honey packer who packed and supplied it to the market. We also produce propolis, a natural anti-biotic which is gathered by the bees to seal up the hive and to provide protection against bacterial infection.

In April, our autumn, we supply bulk live bees to another beekeeper who exports them together with a queen bee to Canada.

When the news came out in 1991 from The University of Waikato about the properties of "UMF^Ž Active Manuka Honey" we concentrated our efforts into the production of this exciting and unique honey. Jar of Honey

This involved establishing different hive management practices to ensure that our manuka honey is as pure as possible and not mixed with other honeys.

We do not use any drugs or chemicals for disease control in any part of our beekeeping operation. More recently, after realising how little is really known about UMF^Ž Active Manuka Honey and that very little was being done to promote this special honey, we set out to inform people of its natural properties so that those with a need can benefit from it.

Our aim is to provide information and to make it clear that this property is not found in all manuka honey as is commonly thought. Knowing this, people will be better informed when purchasing the honey. We now supply our SummerGlow UMF^Ž Active Manuka Honey in packed form and have established a mail order system sending it to many countries around the world. It excites us to hear back from people who have benefited from using SummerGlow UMF^Ž Active Manuka Honey.