Hi and welcome to Piha Gold.

My name is Rusty and I'm just crazy about bees. I've been working with bees for about four years now. It all started with a desire to increase the pollination of my fruit trees here at home. I got a couple of hives and placed them on my garden shed roof. After my first introduction to the inner workings of a beehive, my mind exploded. Wow! Oh and that's right, bees make honey too.

It's an incredible privilege to have bees in my life, especially after the realisation that bees are now totally dependent on human intervention for their continued existence. This predicament is almost entirely because of the highly destructive varroa mite, which will quickly destroy a bee colony if not treated regularly. Varroa mites have killed all feral bee colonies in the wild.

Every honey bee you see flying around or crawling on a flower, has come from a beehive managed by a human. This is both frightening and humbling. Basically, I work for the bees now.

A couple of years ago a good friend of mine asked me to put some beehives on his property in Piha. This proved to be a great idea. The bees were very happy out there and they brought home some seriously delicious nectar. Then another good mate suggested I put some hives on his property in Piha too. Now, there's no way my mates and I could possibly eat all this delicious honey by ourselves. Something had to be done. And so Piha Gold was created to share the sweet, precious nectar that my hardworking bees collect from the magical, pristine environment of Piha Beach.

Thanks to my good mates, my bees and thanks to you, for giving it a go.