A company dedicated to rescuing honeybees and providing a sanctuary for the productive little insects drew much interest at BEIA MEETINGS – the company’s proprietor, Jessie Barker, has been known to drive around with a car full of bees.
The bees are confined to the back of the car, she explains, but that doesn’t stop concerned pedestrians knocking on her windows to warn that her car is full of bees.
Barker’s company, Bees Up Top, rescues swarm bees and rehomes them in urban areas – such as Auckland hotel rooftops.
Bees Up Top was one of the exhibitors at the Hononga Lounge, a new initiative at MEETINGS this year. The lounge gives businesses that focus on sustainability the opportunity to meet event organisers and find ways to become involved in future business events, through partnerships or experiences.
Barker started out three years ago with one hive. “Now I have 60,” she said yesterday. Her husband helps build the hives.
Bees Up Top rescues bees from extermination – which can otherwise be their fate if they nest in the wrong places. Once the bees are rescued, beekeeper Barker takes them to The Bee Sanctuary at Bethells Beach, on Auckland’s west coast, where they can rehabilitate before being re-homed.
Bees only sting if they feel threatened, Barker insists. She doesn’t even wear a beekeeper’s protective suit, though she brings suits along to educate staff during inspections. Rescue hives are placed on the rooftops of businesses and in the backyards of people’s homes. Barker comes to check the hives once a month.
“Each year at Christmas time I extract the raw honey and give it to the businesses in personalised jars.”
Jessie Barker, proprietor of Bees Up Top
Bees Up Top is a small business with big goals, the main one being to educate people, especially children, about the importance of bees. Each worker bee makes only a quarter-teaspoonful of honey in its lifespan, which lasts about six weeks. Every fruit or vegetable that has a seed or a pip has to be pollinated by a bee.
Eighty percent of Bees Up Top honey sale proceeds goes back into building new hives for rescued bees. All of Bees Up Top packaging is recyclable/compostable and the company doesn’t use plastic.
Another exhibitor at the Hononga Lounge was For the Better Good, which makes reusable and compostable water bottles from plants. The firm’s Better Collection Network ensures no bottle ever needs to end up as waste. Some 200 refill locations have been established throughout New Zealand. Jayden Klinac explains that the containers, which resemble plastic, use carbohydrate instead of hydrocarbons. The result is much better for the earth.
Written by Peter Needham
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