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Story: Beekeeping

Packages of bees for export

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Packages of bees for export

Russell Berry is surrounded by tubes containing bees for export. Each tube contains about 9,000 individuals, including a queen. The trade began in the late 1960s with exports of queen bees to Canada, and now queen bees and packages of queen, worker and drone bees are sent around the world.

Using this item

New Zealand Herald

Reference: 14 April 2000

by Derek Flynn

Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Allan Gillingham, Beekeeping – Products, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/15772/packages-of-bees-for-export (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Allan Gillingham, published 1 March 2009.