A Waikato beekeeping couple is keeping their operation viable by prioritising pollination over honey production, writes Viv Posselt.
Maria and Celso Baldo, pictured with their sons Barry and Paolo, with some of their hives in Cambridge.
When Waikato beekeeper Celso Baldo compares early honey yields with today’s output, the scale of change is stark.
“From the 21 hives we started with, we got two drums of honey,” he said.
“Now, we cannot get even a single drum.”
Like many in the industry, Celso and wife Maria have watched varroa mites, rising competition and shrinking returns force a rethink of how they keep their beekeeping business viable.
Sons Barry and Paulo have a sound working knowledge of their parents’ bee operation. Here, Paulo and Celso work together during a presentation at an aged-care centre.
The couple started their business, Marcel and Sons Honey, around 15 years ago.
They were well-trained for the task, both in their home country of the Philippines and here in New Zealand.
Celso, who is a forester by profession, had worked for the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture. His interest in bees began when he was working on a three-year beekeeping project funded by the European community.
Later, after meeting environmental planning graduate Maria through work, he took a job with a queen breeding farm in Queensland. Maria joined him for his second season there before the couple took up an opportunity in New Zealand.
Maria Baldo pointing out details in the demonstration hive they use for their presentations.
They spent four years beekeeping in Galatea, adding to their apiculture skillset through Telford Rural Polytechnic. Celso completed a Certificate in Apiculture Knowledge and Maria a Certificate in Queen Bee Rearing Knowledge. When they moved to the Waikato, they worked for a Hamilton-based commercial beekeeper and soon began their own operation just outside Cambridge.
A recent report from the Bioeconomy Science Institute estimated that almost 13 per cent of the country’s roughly half a million bee colonies were lost last winter. Those who took part in the study attributed most of the losses to the varroa mite parasite, known to seriously weaken or destroy entire colonies.
Celso agrees and said the persistence of the varroa mite is worsened by its growing resistance to counter measures.
Also impacting home-based producers like the Baldos is the increased number of beekeepers who came on stream after a Covid-related ban on the importation of honey products prompted a surge in local operators, all competing for the same nectar sources.
Celso and Maria value their well-established links to farmers and orchardists in this area, so while they now live in Putāruru – where they purchased a house – they still work the business from here and hold down jobs as healthcare assistants at Cambridge Resthaven.
Celso Baldo explaining the workings of bees during one of their ‘World of Bees’ presentations.
Their youngest son Barry has two more years to go at Cambridge High School, and his older brother Paulo, has just graduated in engineering from Waikato University.
“Our hives are still here. We now focus more on the pollination side than on the production of honey and its by-products,” she says.
Celso said without the pollination side of the operation, it would be difficult to keep the business going. Their intimate knowledge of bees helps them focus on sourcing the best queens, ones in hives that are clean, productive and in which the bees are non-aggressive.
The Baldos’ story is one of migrants making good. The couple has always valued education and have made the most of every opportunity to expand their own and encourage the spread of knowledge about bees.
The Baldo family – Celso, Paolo, Barry and Maria – enjoying some down time at the recent Cambridge Autumn Festival. Photo: Viv Posselt
During the Covid lockdown, they took further qualifications in dementia care through a government-funded programme. By then, they had already compiled their ‘World of Bees’ presentation, which includes the safe showcasing of an observation hive with live bees, basic beekeeping gear and equipment, the showing of a video on kiwifruit pollination prepared by their sons and open discussion on bees and their importance in the ecosystem. They launched that in 2019, taking it to local rest homes. It was stopped during the Covid pandemic but resumed in 2023 to an expanded list of aged-care facilities across Cambridge, Putāruru, Hamilton and Huntly.
They also make themselves available to give their ‘World of Bees’ presentation to schools and other groups.
“Promoting education is our advocacy,” says Celso.
“Even though our business is small, we are committed to promoting beekeeping education and awareness to the community.”
Their message, they say, is simple: healthy hives, informed communities, and pollination services remain critical to the region’s farming future.
Close up of a bee on a flower. Photo: Thijs van der Weide, pexels.com
A bee on a cherry blossom. Photo: Yulia Ilina, pexels.com
