Our Approach to Beekeeping
Healthy, happy bees
We aim for long-term colony strength through natural selection. How do we do this? Rather than importing queens from abroad (as many beekeepers do), we rely on local strains becoming better 'survivors'. Also, we tend to avoid short-term fixes and chemical treatments. Over time, successive generations should become better adapted: healthier, more disease- and pest-resistant, and better suited to the local conditions.
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Bee-centred beekeeping
We are 'low interventionists', and favour bee-centric beekeeping methods. We avoid disturbing the hive without good cause, and work with their natural cycles, recognising that they know their needs best. Habitat loss, pesticides, pollution and climate change all threaten bees' existence; we simply try to give them an environment in which they can flourish.
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How we started
We have enjoyed living with bees since 2011, after becoming captivated by these incredible insects when training with the Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association (OKBA) at the Marlborough School Apiary in Woodstock. We have never looked back! The bees are a constant source of fascination, and we continually learn from them.
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Learning from the bees
We learn through observing our hives, and the bees' behaviour. We try to anticipate their needs to head off potential problems. For example, we may narrow the hive entrance if it is attacked by wasps, making it easier to defend. ​Apiarists often debate when and how to intervene, but as natural beekeepers we tend towards minimal interference, to maintain the balanced environment that the bees have carefully constructed.
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Botley Meadow wildflowers in May
Location and Surroundings
Immediate surroundings
Our apiary is in West Oxford, between the Seacourt and Botley Streams, and borders the extensive meadows north of Botley Road. We are surrounded by gardens and a linden avenue, and are close to the Botley Meadow Allotments, where I am sure that I have spotted our bees foraging! This all offers the bees a rich variety of flowering plants for pollen and nectar.
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Orientation and protection
The hives are oriented so that entrances catch the morning sun; this gets the bees off to a good start each day during the foraging season. While the local streams offer a source of water, the bees are known to cluster on neighbouring lawns to sip the early morning dew. Around them are fences, bramble and fruit trees, providing shelter from the wind, and we have built special platforms to keep the hives dry if the area should flood.
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Foraging further afield
Bees can easily fly two or three miles for a special source of food. So, ours may forage further afield to areas such as Wytham Wood, Cumnor and Boar's Hill. On a summer's evening, it is fascinating to quietly observe the bees returning home, as they carry pollen into the hive on their specially adapted rear legs. It ranges from white to brown, and you wonder which flowers they have visited and how far they have flown.
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Products and Services
Honey and beeswax
Our natural honey is always in demand, both for its delicious flavour and healthy properties, and we also provide ever-useful beeswax. How we care for the bees and harvest the honey and beeswax guarantees high quality.
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Pollination
Bee pollination is essential for food production, and is involved in producing about 75% per cent of our food varieties. Visiting around 5000 flowers daily, bees are valuable for local fruit and vegetable growers. Indeed, our neighbours report increased apple and pear yields since our bees arrived! While we do not provide a mobile pollination service (transporting bees can be harm bees' health), we may consider keeping permanent hives on land with access to a good variety of seasonal forage.
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Swarm management
We can collect and re-home locally reported and accessible swarms of honeybees. The main swarming season is late spring to mid-summer, when you may see bees clustering briefly on a tree branch or a post, for example, before moving on to a new cavity. Not all clusters of flying insects are honeybee swarms; we can advise informally, often over the phone, if you contact us.
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Swarm clustering in a bush
Community and Partnerships
Beekeeping community
There are some very supportive groups within the beekeeping community, providing mutual help and advice. These include locally (as well as OKBA) the Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group, which supports and promotes low intervention beekeeping, as does the UK Top Bar Beekeepers group (find out more about top bar hives in our Apiary Diary...).
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Campaigns
We are members of Good Food Oxfordshire, which promotes healthy and sustainable local produce. We support environmental campaigns to help protect bees and their habitat, such as verges and wildflower meadows, and have petitioned the government over its reintroduction of the previously banned neonicotinoids—the agricultural insecticide killing bee populations. Find out more in our Apiary Diary...
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Getting involved
New members are warmly welcomed. Subscribers receive an email when the new season's honey is ready, before it goes on general sale—it can sell out very quickly! In our Apiary Diaries you can read updates about the bees and apiary projects, as well as articles about honey and beeswax production. Members can discuss anything bee-related in our Forum.
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Top bar hive in March