Photos
The bees
Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens wildflower meadow (3)
Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens flower border
Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens wildflower meadow (2)
Note her proboscis (long tongue) as the worker bee sips nectar, later to be converted to honey
Worker bee seeking nectar from runner bean flowers on Botley Meadow Allotments
Cotoneaster is important for honey bees and other pollinators in late spring, while its berries feed birds in winter.
Dandelions are an important food source, left for bees rather than mown or pulled up.
Bee sipping nectar from chives on Botley Meadow Allotment
Resilient worker bee clings to sodden cow parsley (the May of 2021 was one of the wettest on record)
Worker bee amid wildflowers in Botley Meadow Allotments
A warm spring day encourages the bees to forage for pollen and nectar
A worker takes time out of the hive on a warm day
Workers create a queen cell to raise a new queen.
Checking that the queen is laying well, the brood is healthy and has enough food stores
Brood frame showing variously coloured pollen stored to raise the next generations
Our 'Denton' swarm: the queen and most of the bees are now inside the new hive, as remaining stragglers make their way in
Splitting a hive emulates bees' natural reproductive instincts to leave their old home and establish a new colony
Bees convert nectar into honey, and reduce the water content, and then cap it with wax for long-term storage
The Apiary and around
Apiary location amid gardens and meadows
Botley Meadow in June, with cow parsley, buttercups, blackberry and other wildflowers
Warre hives waiting to be populated by a swarm
Cow parsley, nettle and other wildflowers support the Apiary the local ecosystem
Top bar hive added to the apiary in March 2021, and populated in May
Colonies descended from a swarm collected from Headington, Oxford in 2017
An obliging swarm in the garden of the The Coach and Horses Inn, Chiselhampton (near Dorchester-on-Thames), July 2022
Bees orient themselves on moving in to a new home (top bar hive in May 2021)
Transferring frames of brood and food for a new hive
Botley Meadow Bees logo: bee foraging in a meadow
Honey and beeswax
Pouring the season's first honey into jars
Nothing beats honey fresh from the hive!
The first honey of the season in front of a Warre hive
The first honey of the season in the morning sun
Flavour, colour and texture can change during the season, according to the available sources of nectar
Our early harvest of West Oxford Honey was a sell-out!
Mini-pots can make wonderful, cute gifts !
Using the sun's rays to render beeswax
Rendered wax, cleaned and ready for candle-making
Close-up of a pure beeswax melt or cake
Pure bees wax melts
Pure beeswax hand-poured mini-melts (stars)
Pure beeswax hand-poured mini-melts (hearts)
Pure beeswax is a by-product of the honey harvest
Skep and honeycomb pillar candles, hand-poured using pure beeswax from our hives
Skep and honeycomb pillar candles, hand-poured using pure beeswax from our hives
Beeswax candles burn long, with the chromatic range of the sun
Videos
All Videos
All Videos
Preparing to Divide a Hive
Progress with the new Hive
