Are we able to do manuka honey away from New Zealand?

Apr 23, 2017 21:50:14

Hi guys,

are we able to grow manuka trees and keep bees to harvest manuka honey? wonder if anyone has experience with such exotic honey.
I know manuka trees are from New Zealand, not sure if we are able to grow these trees on a small scale here and have bees to harvest manuka honey for us.

waaaay cheaper than buying them
look at the prices at this site i used to visit
manuka honey comvita in hong kong

cannot remember any USA websites off the back of my mind.. oh wait, let me google it at amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=manuka+honey

crazy prices. i m going to start bee hive because its interesting work and because i want these honey

Apr 25, 2017 04:41:38

Bees forage over a distance of 3 to 5 miles in every direction. Unless you are considering planting an area comparable to that with manuka you won't be getting manuka honey. At best you'll get multifloral honey with a bit of manuka nectar in it. That is not to say that planting nectar trees isn't helpful - bees will love it - but you wouldn't be able to call the honey manuka.

Apr 27, 2017 22:33:21

Michael Cox wrote:Bees forage over a distance of 3 to 5 miles in every direction. Unless you are considering planting an area comparable to that with manuka you won't be getting manuka honey. At best you'll get multifloral honey with a bit of manuka nectar in it. That is not to say that planting nectar trees isn't helpful - bees will love it - but you wouldn't be able to call the honey manuka.

i see i see. i guess i am fine with not calling it manuka since i am not selling it but getting the honey for my own family to eat.
3 to 5 miles... haha i don't think i would be able to have such a wide plantation.

ok i guess going for multi flora honey instead! thanks for your advice!

Jul 08, 2017 06:58:54

Manuka is the plant which is a bush and not a tree called Leptospermum scoparium occuring naturally in New Zealand.
The New Zealand name is Manuka.
Australia also has Lepstospermum scoparium occuring naturally and our general name for it is Tea Tree.
There are many different tea tree range in the FAMILY: MYRTACEAE of Leptospermum.
These plants are very pretty and occur mainly in red, pink and white.
Bees just love them as they do with the Acacia, Eucalypts, Banksias, Corymbias, Callistemon, Grevillea, Melaleuca, Hakea and Kunzea plants of Australia.
There are many many plants from Australia that suit bees. The great thing about Aussie plants is they mostly survive on neglect.

Jul 08, 2017 09:39:48

Dennis Clover wrote:

Michael Cox wrote:Bees forage over a distance of 3 to 5 miles in every direction. Unless you are considering planting an area comparable to that with manuka you won't be getting manuka honey. At best you'll get multifloral honey with a bit of manuka nectar in it. That is not to say that planting nectar trees isn't helpful - bees will love it - but you wouldn't be able to call the honey manuka.

i see i see. i guess i am fine with not calling it manuka since i am not selling it but getting the honey for my own family to eat.
3 to 5 miles... haha i don't think i would be able to have such a wide plantation.

ok i guess going for multi flora honey instead! thanks for your advice!

A film I just watched on bee keeping mentioned that if there's plenty of food near the hive, you'll get more honey and because the bees won't have to forage as far, even though they can. If I was keeping bees, I'd try to concentrate the plants I wanted to contribute most to the honey near the hive. It also mentioned getting your plants for the bees established before getting the bees.

I'm pretty sure my information is from this video: https://permies.com/wiki/65175/videos/digital-market/Jacqueline-Freeman-Honeybee-Techniques-streaming

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