Mitch Bartlett
Hello,
I’m Mitch and I am your trusty beekeeper. Keeping bees started off as a hobby five years ago and now here I am on my own website, -never thought that would happen!
When I’m not working with the bees, I’m either working on various conservation projects within our national parks or living life between nelson and out on the farm in the Kenepuru Sound, I’ve got a love for the land and everything in it keeping bees is just an extension of that.
Beekeeping started when we were out looking for some of our cattle and spotted a swarm of bees hanging off a log. Thousands of bees! We rushed home, consulted a newly purchased book, wrapped my head in some shade cloth, grabbed a box and headed out to try and capture these free honey makers. -But alas the free honey on wings had disappeared, as they tend to do.
From there we went on to purchase our first hive from a local beekeeper some months later. Since then I’ve learnt there is no such thing as easy honey and if you want to keep bees you have to be passionate about the bees themselves and not just about covering your toast in honey.
Being involved with whole societies of bees (up to 60,000 in each hive!) is mind blowing. Things are always changing and the learning never stops.
Meet the rest of the team below...
Meet The Bees
The Queen
The Worker
The Drone
The hive is a queen's rule, she alone ensures the hive's social structure is maintained, she mates once in her life, producing up to 1,500 eggs per day.
Workers are all female and devote their lives to producing skiddaw honey for your toast, amazingly their stomach is the size of a pin head, and at times they will fly up to 5km to fill it.
Drones are male and their sole function is to reproduce, they don't collect any food for the hive and can't even protect it as they have no stinger. They hang about in the hive filling their bellies going on the odd flight in search of new queen's.
Meet The Family
