History of Nu-Life Beekeepers

Richard Booth first started showing an interest in bees in the community in the Cape with the few hives that were there in the late 1970s. Richard decided to visit all the greyheads in the beekeeping field to glean as much information as he could from them.
Richard got married to Nola in 1985. Richard and Nola left the community and moved to a plot in Eston in the late 1980s. Richard put an ad in the paper applying for a job as a beekeepers assistant and got one reply from a beekeeper Pat Nolan who was running a thousand hives at the time. Richard learnt a lot from him. Pat Nolan also gave Richard a bakkie to do the work.
There were four hives left on the plot in Eston they were staying on and in the weekends Richard started to build up his own bees and created the company name of “Nu-Life Beekeepers” with the help of Willie Muller.
Nola only developed a passion for beekeeping after one incident which she fondly recalls, “Richard called me one day to the one box and told me to help lift the lid, When I saw the bees hanging in a clump from the lid I screamed, dropped the lid and ran back to the house”.Since then Nola has developed such a passion and love for beekeeping.
Richard and Nola had to move from that house in Eston to a smaller house and then were told by the owner he needed the house for his manager and almost on the same day the beekeeper from Eston told him he could no longer employ him as the trees were not producing enough nectar.
Nola thought, “Lord that sounds too much like you”.
The next day Richard phoned a friend of his in Harding who told him there was a farm going in Harding needing people to stay on it. Richard and Nola shot down the next day and saw all the gum trees on the property. Richard immediately saw the potential.Nola had a dream that night that the local minister in Harding, was sharing bread with us. Nola took this as confirmation that they should go to Harding and where they they would be fed spiritually.
Richards and Nola moved to Harding and did not look back. People joined them from the Ark ministries in Durban and one year in 1996 they produced 34 tons of honey. A miracle in itself. This was enough to send some of the folks overseas to visit the Christian community farms there.
Richard was convinced that the honey should not be tampered with in any way and be sold ‘as is’ except for straining, he called this ‘Raw Honey’.As time progressed Richard and Nola produced a clientèle who were sold on ‘Raw Honey’.The Farmers Weekly did an article on them as well as the Herald and Joy Magazine.
Sadly in 5th September 2018, Richard lost his battle with cancer and Nola had to run the business on her own.
Nola loves honey and commented “Today people are realizing the health effect of Raw Honey. Replace your sugar intake with Raw Honey and you will see the difference”.
In April 2020 Nola sold ‘Nu-Life Beekeepers’ to Rod Ladwig.