Media release
November 22, 2016
Ceres Organics creating a buzz for urban bees
Ceres Organics have partnered with BeezThingz to help bring back bees to the city.
Two honey producing hives and four pollination hives have been installed at the Ceres Organics Mt Wellington premise,
each hosting 20,000-60,000 bees and providing around 50 kilos of honey per year.
Bees play a pivotal role in the environment but unfortunately they have largely been pushed out of urbanised cities.
Ceres Organics and several other like-minded businesses (13 schools in Auckland, the Langham hotel, Lot 23 café in Eden
Terrace, and the Auckland TVNZ building) are working with BeezThingz on the City Bee Initiative to make Auckland the
most bee-friendly city in the world.
BeezThingz are New Zealand’s largest network of urban beehives and beekeepers, and with over 15 years experience, they
provide superior knowledge and experience to maintain happy, healthy bee colonies around the city.
Ceres Organics bee project manager, Dominic Leverton, is excited to be a part of the wider initiative to return bees
into urban environments.
“The honey is harvested twice a year, making sure the bees have enough to help them through the winter. We get to keep
all of the honey harvested from the hives and will be providing jars of honey for our staff to enjoy,” says Leverton.
Ceres Organics are kept informed of the process every step of the way, and receive regular updates on their bees.
BeezThinz managing director, Julian McCurdy says: “Besides the delicious fresh honey, another benefit to those hosting
the beehives is increased pollination. If they have any fruit trees or a garden, plants, flowers, as soon as you put the
beehives in the flowers and plants respond to the added pollination.”
“The plant knows when there are insects around to pollinate so it produces more flowers. People find that their fruit
trees all of sudden flourish when there are bees around and the whole garden comes to life,” says McCurdy.
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