National Honey Month: The Magic of Honeybees and Mānuka Trees

December 2025

Celebrating the Essential Role of Honeybees in Agriculture

National Honey Month, celebrated every September and established by the National Honey Board in 1989, is a time to honor the remarkable honeybee and its crucial role in crop pollination. Overseen by the USDA, the National Honey Board conducts research, marketing, and promotional programs to support the beekeeping industry. This event emphasizes the importance of beekeeping and highlights honey as a natural and beneficial superfood.

The journey of honey begins with the humble honeybee. Whether buzzing in their hives or foraging for nectar in open fields, honeybees are crucial to today’s agricultural market. They perform the vital function of pollination—transferring pollen from plant to plant, which fertilizes them and enables them to bear fruit.

In fact, about one-third of the average person’s diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, with honeybees responsible for about 80 percent of that process. This highlights the immense reliance we place on these tiny creatures.

September usually signals the end of the beekeeping season in many regions, a time when bees prepare their hives for winter. In New Zealand, however, this period marks the beginning of hive relocation in preparation for spring.

The Enchanting Synergy Between Honeybees and the Mānuka Tree

Meet Rhys Casley, Apiculture General Manager at Mānuka Health New Zealand. In honor of National Honey Month, we're excited to share Rhys's insights into one of nature's most fascinating stories—the bond between the European honeybee and the mānuka tree. This relationship not only enchants but also underscores the crucial role honeybees play in pollination and global agriculture. Watch his video below to learn more.

The Arrival of the European Honeybee in New Zealand: A 200-Year Journey

The mānuka tree, or Leptospermum scoparium, native to New Zealand, has been a cornerstone of the local ecosystem for centuries. Despite its modest size, this shrub is pivotal in ecosystem regeneration, often the first to recover after environmental disturbances like fires or floods. Long before European settlers arrived, New Zealand’s indigenous Māori people revered the mānuka tree for its medicinal properties, teaching us a profound lesson in living harmoniously with nature.

When the European honeybee arrived in New Zealand about 200 years ago, it joined forces with the mānuka tree to produce a unique honey—pungent, dark, and robust. Unlike the white clover varieties familiar to Europeans, this honey has only started to reveal its extraordinary benefits in the past two decades.

In honor of National Honey Month, we celebrate the magical partnership between the honeybee and the mānuka tree. At Mānuka Health, we pay tribute to this incredible synergy that creates pure, unique honey.

The Mānuka Health Difference

Our story starts with a team of more than 80 skilled individuals committed to managing 21,000 hives across New Zealand, establishing us as the largest operation in the country.

Guided by a blend of instinct and science, our team explores the expansive landscapes of New Zealand in search of sites rich in manuka trees and teeming with life—an ideal haven for our bees. Spanning 160,000 acres of pristine terrain, these remote corners provide the perfect conditions for our bees to thrive and meticulously craft honey, propolis, and royal jelly.

As stewards of these remarkable creatures, our duty extends to enhancing their efforts, ensuring productive, content, and thriving hives year-round. At Mānuka Health, we lead the charge in queen bee genetics research, developing disease-resistant hives to safeguard the health of New Zealand honeybees for generations to come.

We are among a select few honey producers who extract, process, and bottle our liquid gold in our own state-of-the-art facilities. This hands-on approach allows us to ensure quality, integrity, and authenticity at every step, preserving our honey’s remarkable properties and guaranteeing each jar is infused with unparalleled purity and potency.

Every drop of our honey is rigorously tested and consistently proven to be pure and effective. The liquid gold in each jar is traceable back to its source—right down to the beekeeper who meticulously harvested it.

Certified and authenticated, Mānuka Health embodies the pristine purity of native New Zealand. From the hive to the jar, and into your home, our honey reflects the highest standards of excellence.