Are Bees Protected By Law? If you do not want to read the full article below, then the spoiler alert is that YES, U.K. law does protect them.  Amazingly, despite bees being amongst the best pollinators to provide the food that we eat, we still get lots of questions about getting rid of and hear stories about bees being harmed in the most bizarre and awful ways. The text below is genuine example that recently came into our website via our online contact form.  “Hi there.This is a bit of a strange email, but I wondered if you had any advice?  A young man with either special e ..read more

Organic farmer and writer Neil Hickson (of Burscough Community Farm) explains why organic farmers and beekeepers make perfect partners for conservation and commerce. I would say about 97% of people I talk to have faces that light up when I say, “We keep bees on our farm.” People love bees, even if they don’t ‘like’ bees. The majority have got the message that bees are good and they love the idea of them buzzing around doing their bee work, even if they’re just a tiny bit scared of them. So, bees are good for organic farmers like me. Working on a small scale, you need good public relations if y ..read more

At the time of writing this post we in the United Kingdom have entered unchartered waters due entirely to the virus we now know as Covid-19 or Coronavirus. What most people have probably not understood yet is the significant changes to our lives for at least the next twelve months, and maybe even longer? For those of us who have already tried to follow the panic buyers, comes the realisation that food is likely to become just one of those significant changes. The Tree Bee team are food producers (or our bees are) so we might understand the implications of that more than most. However, because ..read more

Due to the current outbreak of Coronavirus (Covid-19) I had trawled the local shops to find even a small hand sanitiser and failed miserably, I thought that I might produce some of my own. After all, I do hand make TreeBees's  range of Organic, Natural Hand Creams, Delicious Vanilla and Honey Lip Balms and fantastically scented Soap Bars, so applying my talents to Home Made Hand Sanitiser shouldn't be a problem. The main ingredient to my Hand Sanitiser is Surgical Spirit and you can purchase from most chemists at a reasonable price. Word of warning - Surgical Spirit has a habit of drying ..read more

I'm not a fantastic baker. As a matter of fact, pretty much all of the TreeBee family will attest to the TERRIBLE bakes I've done over the years. From Jam Roly Poly (that ended up being more of a jam and sponge layered slab cake?) to Biscuits that not even the birds would touch, I'm definitely not going to be a contestant on Great British Bake Off anytime soon. Most of my attempts are either under-cooked, that end up over-cooked when I pull them out of the oven after putting them back in, or taste so awful, you need entire cans of custard or cream to mask the taste. I think the problem is, I h ..read more

Low Carbon Beekeeping Beekeeping is a fairly Low Carbon business. The basics, such as hives, frames and tools are usually made from wood and steel (though there are alternatives!) and equipment is often used multiple times, even being re-purposed after their original use, to get even more miles out of what can be expensive pieces of equipment. But how do we achieve low carbon beekeeping? Even when you factor in the less obvious side of beekeeping, such as fuel for vehicles to move bees around (or even just going to check on your bees) or the need for jars and labels for the inevitable product ..read more

It’s all about microbeads Firstly what are microbeads? These are small beads made of different types of platics that have over the years been favoured by cosmetic companies to put into the likes of body scrubs, facial cleansers, toothpaste, hair products etc. Do they have an adverse Environmental effect? Absolutely! As soon as they are washed down our drains then the devastation begins. They cannot be filtered out at our water treatment stations and so are passed onto our waterways, then finally into our precious seas. These microbeads will not break down and so are ingested by marine life. Th ..read more

Honey has never been scientifically assessed for its effectiveness in treating upper respiratory tract infections until now. Scientists from the University of Oxford have been studying research databases for studies comparing honey and preparations, using honey as an ingredient, with standard medical care. The results have been published in The British Medical Journal. Their findings indicated that honey was more effective than the usual method for the improvement of symptoms of sore throats, blocked noses, coughs and congestion. It found that those who had been treated with honey had improvin ..read more

What shop does a Honey Bee get its food from??? We ask our children these days a similar question….” Where does your food come from?” I bet most children would say from Tesco or Asda or Aldi or even Morrison’s, not giving it a second thought about where and how it all begins. So let us give the humble Honey Bee some thought and find out some interesting facts about the shop that they visit and the food that they produce. As we know our gardens in the warm Summer months have lots of important pollinators visiting which includes bumble bees, solitary bees, butterflies and many more, but most imp ..read more

What Do Bees Do with Honey? is a common question that most Beekeepers have been asked by inquisitive customers. Honey is the delicious sugary liquid made exclusively by Honeybees over summer and is best enjoyed over toast, in cakes or in tea as a lovely natural sweetner. What is Honey? Honey is a delicious liquid produced by Honeybees and starts off as nectar in flowers. Honeybees will forage up to 3 miles in any direction from their hive (going up to 6-7 miles if they're struggling to find a suitable food source), gathering liquid nectar from flowers. The nectar is then placed into the Honeyc ..read more