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We are a husband and wife team based in north Somerset and we manage a couple of apiaries in and near Frome – we usually have between 6 and 12 hives in 3 to 4 sites and also run a ‘quarantine’ apiary for collected swarms which normally does not have active colonies.
Our goal is to manage our bees sustainably and ethically and also to produce our honey, beeswax cosmetics and other hive products using the same principles.
That sounds great – right? But what does it actually mean in practice?
Well, as regards the bees, it means taking account of how bees want to live and trying to support and maintain viable populations of healthy, indigenous honeybees.
To do this, we must consider bees as pollinators first and honey producers second and try and ensure that they have access to a wide range of foraging possibilities – monoculture flowers and crops are to be avoided so we do not offer pollination services and avoid locales with large monoculture plantings like oil seed rape.
We also seek to promote local indigenous bee strains (the famous black bee) which have evolved to be in tune with local weather patterns and cycles.
We harvest only when and if there is excess honey and often have years when we do not harvest any honey at all.
We only inspect when genuinely necessary to minimise disruption to the bees and, avoid or minimise smoking whenever possible.
Where treatment is required, always seek to use the most natural and least disruptive methods. Unfortunately, because of man introduced parasites e.g. Verroa, it is not possible to ethically keep bees and not treat for disease and parasites.
To do so would be to maintain colonies that are stressed and diseased and also act as disease reservoirs which will infect other beekeepers bees and also wild and feral bee colonies. We also try to develop hygienic behaviour in our bees and apply best hygienic practices in our apiaries.
Our labelling makes it clear that our honey is high quality, local and raw (unpasteurised). And we always use glass for packaging rather than plastic.
