Hive Rental

Bee-hive for your home garden or lifestyle block

Bees are extremely beneficial to the environment. And bees are on the decline so it’s up to us to provide a safe habitat for these amazing creatures.

• Bees help the environment
• It's relaxing and can calm stress
• ​Improves pollination of garden crops and flowers
• Honey has health benefits
• They earn their keep

If you're thinking of leasing bees for your garden this Spring/Summer, we place new hives between August and the middle of December, so bees have time to pollinate your fruit trees and take full advantage of the honey flow, which occurs (generally) from November to January.

Honeybees have quite a specific period of seasonal production and this is also influenced by the queen's maturity. A newly mated young queen needs at least 2 months of egg-laying to begin development of enough bees to populate her new hive. The more bees, the more time, the more mature foraging workers she'll have, to bring in lots of honey!

Annual fee for 1 Standard Hive: $346 +GST

Thistle Bees will do regular hive checks, depending on time of year - approximately every 6 weeks, 3-4 weeks in the Spring / Summer Honey Flow Period.

I, Iain Robertson from Thistle Bees is an approved and accredited Beekeeper with Government owned Asure Quality Limited and have my DECA (Disease Elimination Conformity Agreement), certifying me to check any hives and report diseases.

Your Bee Hive Lease includes:

1. Hive health inspections, for Varroa mite, and disease e.g. American Foulbrood, a highly infectious and fatal bacterial disease.
2. Re-queening if the queen isn't productive or dies.
3. Additional boxes as hive progresses into summer production.
4. Honey removal for processing and distribution: dependent on your hive's production.
5. Wintering down; health check, varroa control and managing the colony so it survives the winter months.
6. Feeding your hive during colder periods when there is less nectar.
7. Thistle Bees register your hive and pay your NZ biosecurity AsureQuality hive levies.
8. Travel costs are included for zone 1, please ask Thislte Bees about the zoning. 
9. 10 X glass jars of Honey (recyclable & environmental friendly)
   For your consumption or give away to friends & family :)

An extra travel fee may be charged annually if located in far-flung rural areas. Please discuss further with Thistle Bees.

Extra hive: $125 +GST per extra hive

Extra Hive includes:

• 10 Jars of honey for the second and subsequent hive

Iain Robertson
[Qualified | Registered | Accredited Bee Keeper]

Landline: 09 889 0990

Email: bees@celto.co.nz