Where manuka comes from

What a hive can reach

A honey bee works the flowers around its hive. So the honey in the bottle is a map of what was flowering within reach. Drop a hive anywhere on the Cooloola coast and see what the bees would find, month by month.

QUEENSLAND
Queensland
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The shed,Peak CrossingBrisbaneGympieCooloola
The south east
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The shed is at Peak Crossing. Much of the beekeeping happens up the coast, in the Cooloola and Rainbow Beach country: coastal heath on sand dunes, the wallum. Here it is, drawn from the Queensland Government's vegetation mapping.

Drop a hive

Tap anywhere to drop a hive. Drag to move it.
How far the bees fly
All year
Or try
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    Share of the land in reach, from the vegetation mapping. The hive is made up: this is a map of what grows, not of where our hives are.

    From this coast

    Our manuka, tested batch by batch

    Two batches are at the lab now, one from Rainbow Beach and one from Noosa. Each bottle carries its batch's number, from its own certificate.

    Queensland Manuka Honey in a clear squeeze bottle, the pink manuka label with a flowering tea tree drawn on the front (a render of the new label, coming this season)Queensland Manuka Honey From $32.00 Two 1kg bottles and a 250g bottle of Queensland Manuka Honey with the pink manuka label (a render of the new label, coming this season)Queensland Manuka, Pantry $169.00 Two 500g bottles of Queensland Manuka Honey with the pink manuka label (a render of the new label, coming this season)Queensland Manuka, Pair $99.00

    All our manuka · Or guess the number first

    When the heath flowers

    The manuka window runs August to January and peaks in spring. The trick is catching the tea trees without the gums.

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    Tea tree heath
    Scribbly gum forest
    Wallum banksia
    Paperbark swamp

    Darker is the main months. From the NSW flora and south east Queensland herbarium collections, not a Cooloola record, so our own hive notes will beat them. The other kinds of country flower on timetables we haven't charted yet.

    Why every batch is different

    The treesSome tea trees put much more of the manuka compound's starting material into their nectar than others. Which ones grow in reach decides the ceiling.
    The mixBees don't read labels. When scribbly gum or banksia flowers at the same time, the honey is a blend. In one study, olive tea-tree honey averaged 361 MGO when bees worked mainly that tree, and 113 when the honey was mixed.
    The yearA strong flow may come only every second or third year. Rain, fire and heat all move it.

    That's why every manuka batch is tested on its own, and why the code on its lid opens its results on the trace page.

    For a class

    Honey, maths and maps in one lesson, for upper primary and up.

    1. Drop a hive, pick a month and print. It comes out as one A4 sheet at 1:500,000, so 1 cm on the paper is 5 km, and the ring is to scale.
    2. Colour in or tally each kind of country inside the ring.
    3. What would the bees bring home that month? Would it be manuka?
    4. Move the hive 3 km (6 mm on the paper) and print again. What changes?
    • Vegetation: Queensland Government regional ecosystem mapping, grouped into eleven kinds of country by their official short descriptions. "Tea tree heath" is a heath, sedgeland or shrubland whose description lists a tea tree (Leptospermum, Aggreflorum or Gaudium). Mapped at about 1:100,000, so it shows the main plants, not every shrub; jelly bush along a creek can be missed.
    • Flowering: PlantNET (the NSW flora), EUCLID and Atlas of Living Australia collection months. Scribbly gum flowers mainly late winter to spring, with some summer flowering.
    • Reach: Visscher and Seeley (1982, Ecology) read a colony's dances: half its foraging was within 1.7 km, and 95% within 6 km. Bees fly further when there is less close by.
    • The blend figure: Cokcetin and others (2016, PLOS ONE), 80 Australian honeys.
    • Flows: Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, on the ABC (2015).
    • Coast, lakes and place names: Queensland Government. Drawn in Farmgate's ink hand.

    Guess the MGO

    Nobody knows the number yet. Not even Murray.

    Our first two manuka batches, one from Rainbow Beach and one from Noosa, are at the lab. Put in your guess and your email. The day the certificate lands, we'll email you the real number and how close you got.

    For scale: shop manuka starts around MGO 100, 250 is a common grade, and 550 and up sits at the top of the shelf.

    No prize, just the bragging rights. One email with the number, the day it's in.

    For teachers

    Using this map with a class?

    Tell us, and we'll send you the next class activity when it's ready.

    A few emails a year about class activities. Nothing else.