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The Hikuwai Rd Honey Company

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The Hikuwai Rd Honey Company

Produced in the stunning Tairawhiti, Gisborne region, We are a small team based in Tokomaru Bay who are passionate about our Bees and our Honey.

We offer affordable prices and a product you will be satisfied with.

12/12/2025

There we are. Second load of oranges off to the packhouse. Thanks to our picker (identity withheld). Good job so far, and man it's been hot! Oranges a bit scruffy this year. Because of the heat, the skins go green again. Colour up again in the autumn
So it's a balancing act. I like to get the crop off and let the trees grow next year's oranges.
They taste very good though.

01/12/2025

One of the magic things about beekeeping. The honey flow. Sometimes the weather is just too cold and the honey dribbles in.
But when it happens, you put that first box on. It's dry looking and a bit grubby. I always feel disbelief that the bees will even bother
After a hot week, heaps of flowers, it looks like this!
Fresh, white wax, comb all cleaned up, bees bubbling up through the frames.
It really is magic

30/11/2025

Kia Ora koutou, no photo today. We occasionally have a ruru hunting bugs on our kitchen window. A big fat poring moth tap tapping away on the window. The faintest brush and it's gone. Sometimes the flash of a ruru wing. Last night I saw one flat against the window. Wing feathers splayed like spread fingers. They are so fast, precise and silent. You might catch a glimpse of one beating up and back along the side of the house

26/11/2025

The kanuka flowering is about two weeks earlier than I expect. Means my hives are probably a bit behind the 8 ball.
From the trees viewpoint, flowers are how they make seed. They are a major investment of the trees energy. So, the flowers will wait quite a while,if they have to, to be pollinated. Once an insect has done the job, that's it. No more nectar, it is all about setting those seeds
They are not there for fun!

06/11/2025

The bloody big tree towering over our garage is a tulip tree. It flowers in November, now. Creamy cup shaped flowers, full of nectar. The tui flock to it. There might be 40 or more at a time. They clonk and crash around, feeding and fighting.
The tree is 100 years old generations of tui have been raised on its nectar. And, for one month every year I get to sit here with my beer and marvel.
Come and have a look!

15/10/2025

Our Summer Kiss oranges are growing apace, with the warmer weather and a bit of that spring rain. These are hard working trees. The next crop is bursting into blossom, and they will not be rid of the current crop till February. It is going to smell amazing in here in a week or so. Come and have a look! Seriously.

13/10/2025

Sloe blossom. I have been hearing a lot of riroriro, warbling away
They are really hard to see, but they (I'm guessing males) Deedle away about their nest, girl friend, eggs to hatch.
Same time I hear pipiwharauroa with its mate finding whistle
It has come all the way from Soloman Islands to find a riroriro nest and lay its egg there.
As I'm pruning along in the feijoas, I have a thought. The riro riro could save itself a lot of grief if it just shut up! Quite a neat little drama though

10/10/2025

A few rows left to finish this job. There have been a lot of distractions lately. Also been doing some beekeeping, setting up hives to mate new queen's
The queen's should start laying eggs this week, so another week or so and I will use them to set up new hives.
It is a lovely time of year, everything green and growing. Lots to do, but nice to just stand, look and listen too.

11/08/2025

Feijoa are pollinated by birds, often starlings. They eat the white, fleshy parts at the base of the flower
Tastes quite nice. Try them!
Rule of thumb for feijoa. A bird should be able to fly into the tree. A starling, not a frozen turkey!

07/08/2025

The first blossom tree and pine pollen in the puddles and every where else. Must be spring.
I started pruning our 700 feijoas today
So a couple more thoughts on pruning.
A tree has as much of itself below ground as above. It stores its reserves in its roots.
So practically, if it is pruned too hard it has the energy stored to respond with heaps of new growth. Also the bigger the branch that is cut the bigger the pipe from those roots and the more vigorously it will grow back

24/07/2025

A few things that I have found (and been told) about pruning fruit trees.
1 the purpose is to grow fruit. Except for dead and sick branches, that comes first.
2 so it is not a discipline project. I try and keep the cuts to 20-30% of the tree. Just guess it. If you are going much over that, stop. Do the rest next year.
3when you cut a big branch that's a big pipe and will regrow strongly. You can rub the shoots off while they are soft
Tea time now, so more later. Cheers

13/07/2025

Bit of a dodgy picture, we planted this tree, nearly 50 years ago. Bit of a prune, most years, and it just keeps on producing like this.
Apart from that, I finished pruning the Valencia oranges today. Gin tonic and lemon to celebrate!
Nearly one month past the shortest day (nother g&t?).
Anne's kids have moved an enormous caravan up to Tiki Tiki, so now we have a Tiki abode as well.
River came up Friday night, but dropped now.
Probably about as much celebration as my liver can handle!
And we have plenty of great honey for sale. Cheers

Address

Tokomaru Bay
4079

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