Our customers have an exceptionally high repeat purchase rate, which is truly the greatest joy for us. We are deeply grateful  for your continued patronage and expectations for our products, and we feel a great sense of responsibility at the production site. Today,  I would like to share part of an email that we send to customers each time they make a purchase. “At this time of year, the bees are in good spirits due to their abundant honey stores, and they are delicate and adorable.  They are unlikely to sting anyone.”

In the photos you see, the area where the bees are concentrated is called the “entrance.” At this time of year, there are frequent mass  attacks by carnivorous hornets, which often results in the worker bees being killed and their larvae stolen. To protect them, we only open  the entrance to the size of a matchbox. The first level of the hive is the queen’s domain, primarily for laying eggs and rearing the brood.  The second level is called the “queen excluder,” where a grid prevents the larger queen from passing through, making it a designated  storage area for the worker bees’ honey. During the peak of the nectar flow, third and fourth levels are added. Our practice is stationary beekeeping, but in Japan’s migratory beekeeping, where beekeepers follow blooming flowers, you won’t see  such multi-level hives due to the scarcity of nectar sources.

By the way, the reason we tilt the hive forward is to prevent rainwater from entering. The surface of the hive becomes yellowish in places,  mainly due to the propolis resin that the bees collect from coniferous forests. They use this resin to coat the inside of the hive for  sterilization purposes. Compared to Brazilian propolis, New Zealand propolis has a less appealing color and scent due to the difference in  origin plants and bee species, making it less pleasant to consume. As for the Strong Manuka Honey, although it’s something we face every year, we are always concerned about the level of antibacterial  activity. Even with products from the exact same region, the activity level can vary greatly from year to year—sometimes it’s very high, and  other times it doesn’t show at all. It’s truly a mystery.

The mechanism behind the production of active substances is still not well understood, and since there is no solution for this, we have  no choice but to accept these outcomes as natural products of the great outdoors. To use a somewhat grand expression, it truly feels  like we are doing our best and then leaving the rest to fate. In the end, the final determinants of quality and quantity are  nothing other than the weather and the health of the bees. I pray that we will be able to harvest good bee products again next season.  We are committed to providing as many customers as possible with products that satisfy them, all while being mindful of the environment here in New Zealand. The above is just a small portion, but we tailor the information and content we share with each customer based on their purchase frequency  and timing. Providing accurate information related to our products is a fundamental part of our company’s policy.