Current Notices and Important Information
Tutin testing your honey harvest in 2023
Members are reminded that all honey extracted after 1 Jan should be Tutin tested if they intend selling, bartering or donating their honey.
The Club offers a composite testing service over the next three months. Cost is $20 per test and free sample jars are available from John Burnet. Samples will be forwarded to the lab for composite testing in batches of ten which enables us to keep the cost relatively low. You can also provide your sample to John in your own plastic screw-top medical specimen jar (minimum requirement is 50 grams per sample). Honey must be liquid - no comb or chunk honey will be accepted.
Testing is NOT necessary if you intend using your honey for your own consumption and it is good to note in the seven years that the Club has been organising lab testing (over 800 samples in total) not one has been found to be over the maximum allowable level for tutin (0.7mg per kg).
The Club has demonstrated to MPI we operate in a low risk area with a targeted testing regime. Therefore if over three years your honey has tutin levels below 0.035mg/kg you are only required to test one in every ten years thereafter. For more info:
Receive unwanted swarms - Summer 2023
Members who would like to receive unwanted swarms collected during the swarming season should flag their interest in their HelloClub account. Once you are logged in, then click on the icon in top right to go to your profile page. Select "Member details" and then the "Club" tab. You can update various information here, including whether you wish to receive any unwanted collected swarms. Don't forget to turn this off once you no longer wish to receive any swarms.
We encourage members to use the site nzbees.net for forum discussion of problems or issues, and if members want to communicate with other members, then please use the Facebook group.
To report a swarm, or find out about collecting or dealing with swarms, please visit our swarms page.
