View from the rear of the beeswax shed in foreground and the new honey extracting and packing shed at rear. This was completed in 1967. The roof of the Field's family home seen at the rear on the left side. At this time they had about 1300 hives.

Russel Field (foreground) of Field's Apiaries and employee "Brownie" 1967-68 season.

When working bees in the Wanganui Valley for Manuka Honey we sometimes stayed overnight in a caravan.

Field's Apiaries 1967-68 Honey Crop stored in kerosene tins as was the usual practice then. About 32 tons here whatever that is in Kilos?

We had no truck mounted mechanical lifter and had to manually lift the full honey supers (boxes) onto the back of the Ford truck, Each box weighed about 25kg

"Brownie" showing a frame containing bee larvae (brood) and some honey.  Brownie took over as head beekeeper from Norman Keane who had left to work as his own beekeeper business.

Most of Field's apiaries were scattered through the Manawatu area and were usually around 20 hives in each apiary. When I worked there in the 1967-68 season they had about 1300 hives in total. They were all standard 10 frame Langstroth hives. We didn't use queen exluders in any of them and neither did we have a mechanical loader. All hives and full honey boxes were manually lifted onto the flat tray Ford truck seen here.

Employee "Brownie" using a steam heated honey uncapping knife in the new honey shed of Field's Apiaries, Norbiton Road, Foxton.

This was very hard work on the wrist. We didn't have an automatic uncapping machine.