Bees are leading the way when it comes to educating locals on the environment in Queenstown.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Bee The Change is an initiative that enables local businesses to sponsor hives around town, including Queenstown Botanic Gardens, a Wakatipu Reforestation plantation and Queenstown Golf Club.
Signage is provided with the hives to educate passerbys on biodiversity and local businesses.
Founder Neal McAloon said the idea for the organisation came after a ski accident put his career as an outdoor education instructor on hold.
"I ran a climbing company in Queenstown. I had a ski accident and [couldn't guide] for a couple of years, so decided to study apiculture," he said.
"The reason for picking up apiculture was because both of my careers were motivated by a curiosity of our natural world and bees just educate us so much on what's going on in our local environment.
"Some friends who own a local brewery then asked if they could buy some hives and sponsor them ... and it just took off from there really."
Bee The Change became a reality in 2019, and has been buzzing along since.
McAloon said bees were an ideal way to educate people because everyone loved them.
"We use the honeybee as a way of engaging and educating the community on environmental issues ... Everybody loves bees and you get honey and it's really easy to engage people to talk [about them]," he said.
Bees also reflect changes in the wider environment and the signs with the hives explain how important the honeybee is to the food chain and how closely linked people are to them.
"As a domesticated species, we get to look into their hives and can pick up everything that's going on in the local environment.
"So they're a canary in the coal mine, if you like, and they're giving us information back about what's going on in the local environment."
McAloon described Bee The Change as "a bit of an impact organisation", which aims for positive well-being changes across the community and the environment.
"We've got these Bee-Friendly Zone signs where we give a pack of seeds and instructions for people to make their own pollinator-friendly garden. And these signs have gone out to 20 early learning centres in the district."
The honey from the hives goes back into the community too, with businesses able to purchase the honey direct from a stall at the local market.
But McAloon said it was not without its challenges, with the mildest winter in Queenstown this year, and sponsorship numbers not increasing due to Covid-19.
"On July 20th, which is right in the middle of the deepest, darkest, coldest part of winter in Queenstown, my bees were flying and collecting pollen off trees that were already producing pollen. Now that's unheard of.
"What it's meant in the long run is that my bees started earlier and the varroa destructor mite, which is a parasitic mite, has been really bad this year and I've had to do three treatments on every hive when I normally only do two. And that's bumped the cost up by thousands of dollars just to manage the hives."
McAloon hoped to expand the organisation in the future, with long-term goals of shipping bees overseas and making Bees For Change a national organisation.
There are free spots going on some of its sites and McAloon encourages any interested businesses to get in touch.