Nature's Secret New Zealand Honey

Our story

We are a privately owned 2nd generation family operated beekeeping business in New Zealand. Being a small family business has allowed us to monitor every step of the process, from our hives to the jar, making sure all the goodness and health properties are not altered, and the integrity of the honey not lost.

In 1978 Dave Sawden (Jon’s Dad) started beekeeping, Jon was 8 years old. Within a couple of years Dave’s hive numbers had grown and they were pollinating kiwifruit orchards and sourcing honey. Dave also worked in the Apiary and horticulture departments of the MAF. Jon used to go to work with Dave in the holidays, inspecting hives and running the MAF’s ‘test hives’. Through Jon’s teenage years he was very busy with Dave’s hives and bought a truck to help him when he was 16 years old.

Jon carried on helping him until he was in his early 20’s. Jon’s work got in the way of helping his Dad and he ended up moving out of town. He kept in touch with the bee industry through his Dad’s stories.

Jon ended up in Auckland in the building industry; over the years he came to realise he was not suited to the city and many aspects of the building industry. We decided to buy 10 nucs (small hives), from the man Dave sold his hives to when he retired from keeping bees. So in a way we bought some of our old hives back. Jon remembers building the nuc boxes many years earlier. We had already moved to the country and we loved the bees and the outdoors so took a leap of faith and decided to turn it into a business. Jon left the roofing trade to become more focused on growing and developing our beekeeping business. The best decision ever. As beekeepers know a lot of hard work and effort goes into working the bees. The more you learn the more you realise how much more there is to discover about these amazing insects.

We wholesaled the honey initially to inject money back into the business so we could continue to grow, however, we really wanted to create our own label.

We started the branding process and now we have our first batch of packed Manuka Blend honey. This honey was sourced from the National Park area. The bees have blended this Manuka honey with Flax, Heather and a few other flowers.

Every step of the way our honey has been monitored and tested to maintain export standards, including the extraction and packing process.

We believe in natural products to promote health and to work alongside nature whenever possible.

We have produced this high quality honey and are able to market it at a very competitive price to continually deliver high quality honey that families and individuals can afford.