Like bees to honey, newcomers were drawn to the lure of the high-paying product.
But Ariel Kururangi, who was a student at inner city Auckland Girls Grammar, beekeeping held appeal well beyond any potential payments.
Thanks to some excellent guidance from her year 13 sustainability teacher, good parental support and a love of the outdoors she decided beekeeping was to be her career.
“Coming from a central Auckland girls’ school it was definitely pretty unique and I don’t think anyone else in my year ended up choosing something that was in the primary sector.
“For me, I was not that keen to go to university straight off and was feeling a bit lost about where to next but to be honest I have not looked back after starting here. I have always had an interest in nature and in animals so it was a good fit.”
Kururangi has worked as a specialist queen bee rearer for Waikato apiary company Coast to Coast Bees at Te Kowhai since finishing school 18 months ago.
She found herself part of the company’s queen team and was tasked with grafting cells of queen bees into commercial quantities for customer hive companies to buy.
It is delicate, precise work requiring a light touch and almost intuitive feel for how the queens will respond to bee numbers, temperature and weather while the grafting process is in play.
And it is one Ariel appears to have developed a deft hand at.
“Queen rearing is a challenging role but one I seem to have picked up quite well and enjoy success in.
“It could be that as a female you do tend to have a subtle touch. That helps.”
Beekeeping is not an industry necessarily defined by male dominance but being one of the precious few females in the job was an initial concern. However, she was welcomed universally into the craft.
“I would love to see more females in the industry. The opportunities are definitely there. I have worked only once with an older female beekeeper and it would be good to see some younger women here.”
The queen rearing process requires close attention to the exacting process taught by a particular beekeeper and no one beekeeper uses the same procedures.
Kururangi is keen to build her knowledge of as many techniques as possible and is not afraid to reach for some modern tools to boost that knowledge.
“Social media is really good for keeping in contact with other beekeepers, putting up images of your work. You can learn a lot in a short period.
“Ultimately, I would be keen to help put together some videos on methods that can be shared, particularly given that there are now no courses specifically on queen rearing.”
Winning the inaugural scholarship provides Kururangi with the money to do her levels 3 and 4 apiculture papers through the Primary ITO via correspondence while employed with her hands-on work experience playing a key part in completing the qualifications.
Tauranga scholarship donor and founder Neil Mossop started beekeeping at 15 with his father Ron, the scholarship’s namesake.
Mossop said he was highly impressed by the calibre of applicants and ultimately Kururangi’s enthusiasm for self-improvement and for the industry’s future made her a stand-out candidate.
She is looking forward to eventually running her own queen team and playing a mentoring role in helping get other young people started in the industry.
Meantime, she has already built a good understanding of the industry’s big challenges including the impact of manuka’s lure on increased hive numbers and stocking rates in the sector.
“Some areas are overpopulated and bees can be quite underfed.
“The courtesies around who puts hives where are not as strong as they used to be.”
