You may have heard that buying and consuming local honey is better than buying and consuming supermarket honey. The reasons why, however, you may be less certain of, and it may even surprise you! That's why we have compiled a list of ways in which you can differentiate between local and supermarket honey so that you're always getting the purest and healthiest honey. Supermarket honey is not as healthy and natural as you may think, or as the label wants you to think. In fact, in most cases, supermarket honey is not actually honey but a honey-flavoured sugar sy ..read more

When do bees come out in the UK? During the winter bees tend to hibernate in order to conserve energy and ultimately survive the harsh, winter conditions. However, in mid-April when the weather starts to become warmer and pollinating flowers begin to bloom, bees end their hibernation period and start to become more active. The exact time of year that this occurs is totally dependent on the weather, therefore it changes slightly from year to year. However, in general, bees are most active in the UK between mid-April and mid-October. Unfortunately, climate change is having a significant impact ..read more

You're lying on a picnic rug in the midst of summer, your eyes are closed and you can feel the warmth on your face. Suddenly something buzzes by your ear… you turn around…was it a bee… or was it a wasp?  We often think of bees to be heroes and wasps to be devils, when in reality, bees and wasps are equally valuable to us and the environment, just in very different ways. Why are bees and wasps so often confused? Maybe because they both buzz around or because they both sting as a form of defence? Bees are pollinators, whereas wasps are predators. Both roles are equally important. Pollinatio ..read more

Natural, raw, and unfiltered honey is versatile and incredibly delicious. What’s more, honey never goes off. In fact, archaeologists have found honey in ancient Egyptian tombs to be as good as the day it was first sealed! We believe this to be a unique and notable tribute to honey’s everlasting shelf-life. To fully understand honey's un-bee-lievable shelf life, it is necessary to break down its composition, as well as the bees’ honey-making process.  Firstly, honey is primarily made of sugar. Sugar is naturally low in moisture which means that bacteria and microorganisms are unable to gr ..read more

A few months ago, a friend working for the organisation UNLOCKED reached out to me. Unlocked is a two-year programme, designed to train graduates as prison officers. My friend had heard the word BEES and put me in touch with Daisy, who was a graduate in her second year of the scheme and had managed to set up two hives in a prison. Daisy was training at HMP Hindley, Wigan, and was looking for some support and advice about beekeeping. We had an initial zoom call with her to establish whether Beeble could help. The moment Daisy spoke, my computer screen lit up and so did I as she radiated her li ..read more

Before closing my hives for the winter, I reflect on the thousands of years that bees have produced the same wax comb, honey, propolis and royal jelly! All with the expertise of the chemist, architect, engineer and geometrician, the bees work tirelessly over the summer to produce enough honey to stay alive throughout the winter months. Therefore, it is essential, as a beekeeper, to leave enough honey for them to survive.    During the winter months, when the temperature outside the hives falls to 14 degrees, the bees move closer together, and below 9 degrees, they even ..read more

Less than one month ago was my first day walking through the door of Beeble's office, a recent graduate student with very little work experience. And who would have thought that I would be able to learn so much during these four weeks?   To be honest, the first day I met my team, I didn't really know what to expect from this job, what my duties would be, or what the team expected from me during my four weeks of internship. And if that wasn’t already disconcerting, it had to be taken into account that English is not my native language. I was excited and scared at the same time, but after f ..read more

As the nights begin to shorten and the warm summer days have started to become more sporadic, the prospect of a long, cold winter ahead of us, may seem fairly bleak. However, the atmosphere in the Beeble team is quite the opposite and our worker bees are absolutely buzzing! Now summer has ended we are taking a more optimistic approach to the change in seasons and are excited for the next few months ahead of us. Our busiest time is fast-approaching and more importantly, Christmas is on its way! The Beeble worker bees in the office are busy buzzing away as we start to prepare for the festive se ..read more

Worker Bees Do ‘Drift’ Typically worker bees don’t venture out from their hive to other hives, however, after a bit of research I found that some honeybees do ‘drift’ to other hives. The time has come for this worker bee (me) to drift. A lot has changed in the 20 months since I joined the Beeble team in September 2019. When I joined the team, Beeble sold just one product - Beeble Original Honey Whisky. Today honey whisky remains the core product, however Beeble now sells over 20 other products online including several from other bee-centric brands. Beeble is busily adding to this, we are intr ..read more

How The Ancient Wisdom Of Honey Helps New Mothers I was peanut-butter-and-honey-sandwiched between two boys growing up. I always imagined giving birth to only boys; it was a wondrous surprise to have two beautiful girls before boy after boy after boy, and then a princess as the grand finale. I hear you counting: six children, never planned. I feel very privileged (and a bit crazy) to have had six children. Now that they are all adults, I can sleep half the night without worrying. The anxiety never leaves you, though. As the saying goes; you are only ever as happy as your unhappiest child, what ..read more