All Honey and Wax products from Burton Green Honey are pure and natural. We add nothing to the honey and we only filter the honey at room temperature. Our wax products (such as candles) are made from pure filtered beeswax which is melted and poured into a mould. Read more about our wax products here

We fully understand the importance of Honey and other pollinators to the environment, so our prime focus is on sustainability and the wellbeing of our bees rather than maximising honey production.

As beekeepers we need to understand the key elements of the beehive and we undertake regular inspections of our colonies to ensure they are thriving, healthy and to minimise the risk of swarming. Bees tend to swarm from late May to mid-Summer, giving rise to the old rhyme: A swarm in May is worth a load of hay. A swarm in June is worth a Silver spoon. But a swarm in July isn’t worth a fly!

If you notice a swarm of bees in your garden don’t try to deal with it yourself, get in touch and let me remove it safely for you. Please contact me if you think you have one."

To find out more visit his web site: Burton Green Honey

A review of this Fasinating Talk

Were there real bees in that wooden hive that Alan Deeley our speaker at the September Open Meeting brought along we all wondered? There was certainly a persistent humming that we could all hear. 

Fortunately, Alan who is not only a very skilled and knowledgeable beekeeper but also an entertaining and humorous speaker after teasing us revealed that the sound of a typical hive population of 50,000 bees was thanks to a modern electronic recording device as he lifted the lid on the hive – we all stopped running for the exits!

The honeybee is a remarkable insect in many different ways and at the end of Alan’s talk, I certainly had an even greater respect for the bee and its importance to us and our planet. We learnt that the biology of the honeybee reveals just how special it is and what makes it different to other insects. In any hive, there are three types of honeybee: a single queen, thousands of female worker bees and in the summer, hundreds of male drones. The drone bee does no work and in the early autumn, they are evicted by the workers and die. There are ‘docile hives’ and ‘nasty hives’. Bee Keepers are important members of the community and bees are of course a key part of the cycle of nature and pollination. Hives are a source not only of honey, which incidentally never goes off but also of wax for candles. The first ‘modern’ hives in the 19^th century with frames were made from champagne crates.   Honey was used in WWI to treat soldiers' wounds. It is still used in wound dressings today. Medical grade honey is found to work against bacteria and fungi by creating a moist healing environment that is antibacterial in nature.

There are many threats to bees including climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation with declining opportunities for foraging, pesticides and the yellow-legged hornet, also known as the Asian hornet that invades hives and kills its occupants.

Following Alan’s excellent talk, I for one now have even greater respect for bees and their role in nature and the need to nurture their habitat. We all have a role in ensuring the future of bees and thus ourselves.  If we do not look after our bees then while the Church clock may still stand at ten to three, there may no longer be honey still for tea, to paraphrase Rupert Brooke

Nick Booker