Small but mighty, and always busy. Bees are one of our most industrious insects and their honey has long been revered for food and its medicinal properties. But, new research has revealed it could well be gold for our gut, writes Seven Sharp reporter Sacha McNeil.
Hidden among high-rise Auckland city is Highwick, a Victorian House with a 19th-century garden bustling with bees. Nestled among the flowers are a couple of hives used as teaching apiaries for producers of honey, Comvita.
According to Comvita's bee and nature advocacy lead Noelani Waters, bees respond to the very energy we bring to the hive.
"They do want you to be relaxed and calm and moving with the flow. With nervous energy, we emit a faster heartbeat and sweat a little bit, so bees respond to that. It's nice to just stay calm and enter the hive in that state."
Evolving with flowering plants for more than 100 million years, honey bees have been in New Zealand since the 1800s.
The hive itself is a buzzing community and a true matriarchy. About 5% of the bees in the hive are male bees, making 95% of the enterprising workers female.
"It's genuinely a female-led society. There's one queen in most colonies and she lays eggs all day, every day. She lives from one to five years and she can mother over a million babies in her lifetime, she's really remarkable," said Waters.
Humans and bees have been working together for over ten thousand years, explained Waters. It continues to be a true collaboration. Bee 'well-beeing' is something those in the honey industry take seriously.
'Bee health is sacrosanct'
Comvita's chief science officer Jackie Evans said: "Bee health is sacrosanct because without happy bees we won't get high productivity and high quality honey. In an industry first, we have a bee welfare code to ensure that the bees are low stress and happy."
It's in all of our best interests to look after nature's busiest, with bees pollinating a third of all the food we eat. And, right now there's even more reason to protect them.
"We've found a natural compound that's found only in Manuka honey and this compound appears to inhibit some pathways that are really important for digestive inflammation."
World-first clinical trials are being undertaken on Manuka honey's impact on digestive health at Otago University in partnership with Comvita.
"Manuka is a really special honey with its antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory activity and antioxidant activity.
"We're really excited about this discovery. This compound inhibits a particular enzyme associated with digestive inflammation, gastric ulcer formation, and inflammatory bowel disease, so that's really exciting from a future gut health benefits perspective."
Evans said Manuka honey could be the answer to relieving indigestion, belching and heartburn rather than turning to pharmaceuticals.
"This really is a consumer trend to look at food as medicine rather than popping pills."
Waters said we can all help the humble honey bee thrive in our own backyard.
"You could plant all kinds of herbs and flowering plants, bees love borage, lavender and rosemary. They love these bright blue colours because they see ultraviolet light.
"And, the biggest impact you can have is planting native, flowering trees, year after year they will produce a nectar-rich source for the bees."
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