Source: Radio New Zealand
Aidan Thompson says one bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey over their entire lifetime. Ke-Xin Li
Buzzing behind a tall fence in the inner city suburb of Green Lane in Auckland are Aidan Thompson’s bees.
At the age of 11, Aidan already has years of beekeeping and business experience, with the help of some neighbours.
“My beekeeping journey started when I was seven years old. I was looking for a job to earn money, and Mrs Parker had an idea that I could sell their honey and earn a little profit.
“I started off with buying 10 of them, and then I sold them on the side of the road, and I soon had to keep going back on my bike to get 10, and then at the end, I was getting 30 at a time, that my sisters had to help me with. And then I had enough money to buy my own beehive, and Mrs Parker and Mr Parker helped me look after it and harvest honey from it, and then I got to sell my own honey.”
Eleven-year-old Aidan Thompson’s bees are working hard for the summer harvesting season. Ke-Xin Li
By spring, the bees have waxed down the lid onto their hive boxes, and Aidan uses a hive tool – a metal that looks like a set square – to crack open the box and check on his bees.
“One bee makes one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime,” Aidan said. He finds the little creatures’ productivity fascinating.
Last season, Aidan harvested about 150kg of honey.
His sister Emma did the maths and found it would take about 360,000 bees to make that much.
With a master’s grasp of the subject, Aidan explains how the honey is made.
Apart from extracting honey, Aidan also makes beewax candles and sells them at markets. Ke-Xin Li
“So the bees have pollen on it, they put it into cells, and then they use fluids from water, and then they eat the pollen, then they vomit it back up. So when you eat honey, you’re basically eating vomit.”
A fact that doesn’t bother Aidan.
“I didn’t really care. It tastes good, even if it’s vomit.”
It took Aidan about a year selling honey on the roadside to save the $300 for his own hive.
And now, he’s saving his money for grander plans.
Aidan Thompson’s bees help him save money towards a bee farm, and help him support the dreams of others. Ke-Xin Li
“I’m going to save up for a house or a bee farm in the future. That’s what my bank has as my goal, $999,000. Don’t have that yet.”
But Aidan is serious, and he’s thought it through.
“I want to have a bee farm, but then sometimes I’m like, I might just have that as a little side hobby and just have two hives.
“Because I’ve found out that if you make 2,000 or 5,000 pots of honey a year, it’s quite hard to sell. So if I did get a farm, I’d probably be selling quite a lot overseas.”
By saving for his dream, Aidan is supporting others both locally and abroad.
“So I sponsor the Ellerslie Women’s First team. I give them ‘player of the day’, honey, so whoever gets the player of the day gets a little bottle of honey. I was sponsoring Brighton in Tanzania.
“Every $100 I made, I gave him $10. We lived over there for a year, and my mum [suggested it], because we were friends with some of them over there, so we help them now.”
With the help of his sister Lara, Aidan is growing his business and has an Instagram page called “thekidbeekeeper“, where he advertises a free honey delivery service on his bike.
But the busy beekeeper said there’s still lots to learn about running a buzzing business.
“I really like harvesting honey from the beehive, scraping off the wax on top of the honey and spinning it to get out the honey. But I’ve learnt that selling honey on the side of the road is a lot harder than getting it out from the beehive.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
