We love our NEW brand 'The BeeKeepers Honey', we hope you do too!
Chris and I (Susan) have been producing quality honey since 2014 which was mainly sold in bulk to packers for export. In 2018, we decided the next step was to launch our own retail brand to enable us to share our pure and natural honey in New Zealand. From there, 'The BeeKeepers Honey' was born. We hope you enjoy our range of honey and honey products.

About 'The BeeKeeper'
Chris has been beekeeping commercially in Canterbury for over 20 years and from his early days as a share milker on dairy farms started with just 1 beehive. From there, Chris grew a real interest in bees and after a nasty tractor accident that left him pinned under a tractor causing serious injuries, Chris decided it was time to move away from the dairy farming game and got into beekeeping.

Working several jobs to fund the purchase of gear and more hives, the time came when Chris had to decide – back to the dairy farm or take the plunge and do beekeeping full time. The decision was made and the plunge was taken. To help gain experience Chris took a beekeeping role with a long established Canterbury commercial beekeeping company.

Over the years that followed, Chris continued to slowly grow his hive numbers and in recent years, Chris has increased hive numbers to where he is now running over 3,100 hives. Over this time, beekeeping has changed so much and the challenges are ever changing (think earthquakes in Kaikoura and having to fly in by helicopter to stand up toppled hives) but Chris’s passion for the bees has not waivered.

Working in some of the most remote, beautiful and untouched areas of Canterbury and beyond, from the Beech tree forests in the foothills of the Southern Alps where the Honey Dew is produced, to the expansive Canterbury plains which are renowned for their exceptional clover honey and then up to the Kaikoura’s for the Manuka, the business has in recent years continued to expand and diversify.

Proud to still be a very ‘hands-on’ beekeeper, Chris is constantly working on growing, improving and finding more remote sites with good pollen sources for the bees. We are very focused on doing 'what is best for the bees' and part of our continuing goal to do the best by the bees, we now manage our hives organically. We see that a big part of this process is fostering long term, mutually beneficial relationships with farmers and landowners.

Chris and I are supported by a keen and enthusiastic team who work hard to maintain bee health and productive hives. We have enjoyed employing experienced beekeepers over the last few seasons from many different countries (Sweden, UK, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, Hungary to name just a few) which has been a great learning opportunity and an insight into how things are done differently in other countries.

We were so lucky to have Kevin Le Port on our team who has taken all of these amazing photographs across our website. A big thank you Kevin, you captured the real beauty of beekeeping and the essence of the South Island, New Zealand.

We hope you love our honey as much as we do, this really is a SUPERFOOD that should be part of a healthy daily diet.
Chris and Susan Gill