My Account
Kim Kneijber’s fascination with bees began when a swarm repeatedly landed in her Auckland garden, 17 years ago.
“I like to say that the honeybee found me,” she says.
Unable to find anyone who wanted the swarm, Kim took up beekeeping to provide them with a home.
“In the end I had to kill them as they had American foulbrood disease, so it was a sad start, but so fascinating that I stuck with it.”
She went on to become an apiculture inspector – authorised by Biosecurity to check hives for pests and diseases – and was also ‘honorary beekeeper’ of the Auckland Town Hall beehive, located on the building’s front balcony.
Auckland Beekeepers Club recently awarded her its highest honour – Bee Master – and she is co-president of the Rodney Beekeepers Club.
Kim lives on a lifestyle block but says you don’t need a big space to keep bees. She has some in more urban parts of Auckland too, including on a carport roof in Ponsonby.
“Our council is very bee-friendly, we have some of the best by-laws around keeping bee in NZ, but it is about them not becoming a nuisance to your neighbours,” she says. “I have bees in small patches of garden, but direct the flight path so they fly straight up and avoid the entrances facing neighbours directly.”
Kim says, wherever you keep them, there is nothing better than seeing healthy bees. “Watching them come and go from the hive, seeing all the different colours of pollen they bring back – there is so much to see when you look at a frame of bees. There’s nothing nicer on a sunny day than walking past the beehives and smelling the wax. I never thought I’d be a beekeeper, but it’s very rewarding – and not just for the honey and beeswax.”
Sharing her knowledge is a big focus – she teaches a number of beekeeping courses. The latest is Otago Polytech’s NZ Certificate in Apiculture – a free (government funded) Level 3 NZQA course, which includes theory and practical elements and is based in Orewa. It is aimed at people who want to get started in beekeeping – as hobbyists or professionals and Kim says there has been a lot of interest.
The course begins on September 12. Info and enrolment: op.ac.nz/study/natural-sciences/horticulture/new-zealand-certificate-in-apiculture-level-3/
Buzzy September
September is Bee Aware Month – an annual, national education campaign that aims to raise public awareness about the value of bees and encourage New Zealanders to take action to improve bee health. The campaign began as Bee Aware Week and in 2013 it became a full month of celebrations.
This year the theme is ‘Bee a Hero’ – something anyone can do by planting bee-friendly plants, mowing lawns less often, using pesticides safely or not at all and supporting local beekeepers.
Bee Aware Month is coordinated by Apiculture New Zealand. Info: beeawarenz.co.nz
