About Beekeeping

What do beekeepers do?

Beekeepers help bees by providing hives for them to live in, and in return, the bees make honey for us humans to enjoy. Beekeepers make hives for the bees. They put frames inside them, made of wood and wire panels coated with beeswax and embossed in a honeycomb shape. These frames give the bees a head start for building their own honeycomb. Beekeepers also make regular visits to the hives to check on the bees and the honey.

How do the Beekeepers take the honey?

When they see the honey’s ripe, the beekeeper smokes the hive to calm the bees (because calm bees are less likely to sting). Beekeepers only take a few frames each time, as we don’t want the bees to be without any honeycomb. By slicing the wax top off the honeycomb, beekeepers can get out all the honey they need. Now the honey’s ready to be packed into glass jars or squeezy bottles and sent to shops for us all to buy and enjoy.

Do honeybees need beekeepers in order to survive?

We all know that honey is made by bees, after collecting nectar from flowers. But did you know that different nectars produce different types of honey? Which is lucky for us, because this means that we get loads of different flavours to try! The different flowers that honeybees visit can affect the colour, flavour and even aroma of the honey produced. Clever beekeepers can control the types of flowers that bees visit and, in turn, effect the type of honey produced. To try these differences for yourself, try comparing our Orange Blossom honey, which has a fresh, fruity tanginess, to our Clover Honey, which has a more buttery vanilla taste. If you want to go to the complete other end of the spectrum, try a Manuka Honey. This comes from New Zealand and is made from the nectar of the flowers of the Manuka tree. Its taste is like nothing else – slightly herby, earthy and rich.