New Zealand start-up Your Pure Honey is offering customers the chance to own a share of a beehive in and enjoy the Manuka honey it produces. A basic share costs USD 285 per season (September–May) and yields 2kg of raw honey (delivery costs are included). Those who their own personal colony can adopt an entire hive as a 'Premium Partner' for USD 2,500 and receive 20kg of honey at the close of the season.
Your Pure Honey is keen to establish a personal connection between partners and their hives. Each partner receives a personal link to a website that's updated throughout the season with photographs and videos of their hive, and the material is collated in a photo book and DVD at the end of the season. Like the vineyard shares and adopted olive tree that preceded this venture, it's all about creating a unique story and product that can be shared with friends.
And there's an extra dimension that should appeal to consumers: forest preservation. Manuka trees are often felled to create extra farming land. Your Pure Honey rents land from farmers (one hectare per hive), protecting Manuka forests and providing farmers with an alternative source of income. It's a sweet deal all round. (Related: Remote-controlled farming for city dwellers — Sustainable crowdfunded forest — Rooftop beekeeping at Fortnum's.)
Website: www.yourpurehoney.com
Contact: info@yourpurehoney.com
Spotted by: luxist.com via Chris Turner
Manuka trees are NOT "often felled" to create farming land.
NZ's native trees are protected under the Resource Management Act, and it is near impossible to fell native forests for farming land.
Furthermore, renting land from farmers does not aceive anything unless the farm is next to a stand of Manuka trees. It would be far better to rent land from the government owned forests and place the hives in the middle of the manuka trees which would help govt conservation efforts to restore the forests and the indigenous insects/animals which depend on them, than to give money to farmers who were responsible for the destruction of these forests in the first place and at no time have ever shown a willingness to regenerate the native landscape.