Asian Hornets are likely to be the biggest challenge for beekeepers since the Varroa Mite came to the UK. Last year multiple sighting were made fortunately none yet in West Berkshire, however, the sighting are moving fast and this may be the first year that we will see one. Asian Hornets have been seen in Hampshire so they aren't far away. Asian Hornets have caused lots problems in France because they will attack a hive on mass. This will also impact the other forms of native pollinators in the area. Ben's Berkshire Bees will be taking action installing monitoring traps in our Apiaries, but we ..read more

Last year was a challenging year for the bees, the honey crop was limited. The warm winter so far has meant very active bees eating lots of stores. When colonies are light we supplement the feed with fondant to make sure the bees don't stave when there is very little nectar and pollen around ..read more

This year, first time in three years, there was a Newbury Show we took our bee stall. We have put some work into upgrading the stall with a our new hive display unit - which Ben made himself. It was wonderful to see the show running again and it was very well supported by the public - especially on the Saturday when we had people talking to us nearly constantly. Our honey soaps went down very well - we will have more batches before Christmas including a new honey and orange scent. We also sold out of candles on the first day so will be producing some more before the Christmas markets! The Ne ..read more

We have been extracting and jarring our honey and now have lots available to purchase! The pictures below are Isaac's Honey - Isaac is our Junior Beekeeper. We charge £5 per £340g jar or £6.50 in the reusable Jute gift bag ..read more

It is only mid May and the weather seems to have been perfect for the bees to get into swarming mode. To prevent our bees from swarming we have been making up new colonies from splits. We have been out on 9 bee rescues so far with people calling to report swarms. We get those swarms into a basket then move into a new hive or give them to another local people. Last night we went to a swarm wrapped around a tree near Newbury Racecourse (picture bottom left). We managed to get most of the bees into our box, but then noticed that the bees were generally heading up into a higher branch rather than ..read more

One of favorite days each year is when we bring back and extract the honey. The process starts in the apiary when we place clearing boards into the hives to encourage the bees down into the brood box and out of the supers (the boxes which hold the honey). Once empty of bees we bring boxes back home. Each frame is capped by the bees with a layer of white wax. The first job is to remove this layer (this wax is the best for making candles). We then put the frames into our extractor. This is a large bucket with a metal frame inside which spins the frames around quickly and causes the honey inside ..read more

We were called to assist with a colony of bees which had decided to make their home in a hedgehog house - whilst the hedgehog still lived their! We opened up the roof of the hive and found the bees had made 6 combs with eggs, larvae and stores. It is always fascinating to see the way that combs are made in the wild, straight, with exactly the right amount of space between the wax. We carefully cut each of the combs out of the box and then fixed them into frames within our nucleus box using elastic bands. Once all the frames were transferred we shook the rest of the bees into the box and left ..read more

May through to July is the honey swarming season. When a colony is large enough it will reproduce by raising a new queen, with the old queen leaving along with half of the bees, off to find a new home. The first was in a Cherry Tree in Brimpton. This was a simple collection, we placed our Swarm box underneath a quick shake of the branch and they were in the box. The swarm is now in a local beekeepers hive. The second was small swarm in Chieveley. We were able to brush them into our swarm box. These bees are now in the garden and we will see how they do. The third was a massive swarm in That ..read more

In March 2023 The Guardian reported that all samples of UK honey from main packers and processors tested under an EU fraud scheme showed markers of adulteration. This included brands sold through most of the major supermarkets. Across the whole of Europe 43% were found to be adulterated. Honey labelling in the UK doesn't require specific countries to be named as the source of origin - "A blend of EU and Non EU Honeys" or "A product of more than one country" are common phrases which essential mean could come from anywhere. The UK imports a lot of honey - 38,000 tonnes from China alone. Chinese ..read more

As we come into April ,as soon as the temperatures pick up a bit, it will be the start of swarming season which will last through to mid June. Swarming is a completely natural trait of honeybees - it is the way that colonies reproduce. If you come across a swarm it can be intimidating, there can be up to 20,000 honey bees flying around, however, there is no need to panic. Always give a swarm space unless you know what you are doing, but in general bees are at their most docile when they are swarming - they are focused on finding a new home. An experienced beekeeper will be able to come and h ..read more