Our bee story so far...

 

When we moved to Bwlford, part of the dream was to one day have our own bees.  We were lucky enough in January 2018 to acquire two hives from an experienced bee keeper in Brecon who was downsizing.  The hives contained lovely little Welsh honey bees, originally from Pembrokeshire, so it was even more exciting that they were returning to their roots.

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Knowing very little about bee keeping, we went on courses, read books, researched online, but nothing is a valuable as the real hands on experience.

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So in May 2018, we donned our bee suits, and with smoker and hive tool in hand, opened the first hive.  It was a nerve wracking experience.  We didn't want to harm the bees (or them to hurt us), but as we opened the first super, the sweet aroma of spring honey was almost overwhelming.  The first hive was doing brilliantly.  The supers were filling up and honey was oozing from the frames.  We identified  the queen, and watched as the worker bees went about their business.  Incredible!

 

The second hive was quieter, but on inspection, there was a queen and honey was being produced.

We decided to extract honey from the first hive and leave the second until the end of summer.

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On the 31st May 2018 we harvested our first batch of Bwlford Honey!  Using a centrifugal spinner to extract the honey, we then ran it through a sieve just to remove any large particles and jarred 21 pounds of Welsh Spring Honey. 

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As of 2019, we have 3 strong hives and we hope to expand in 2020.  In addition to our lovely honey, we now produce Beeswax candles, beeswax balm and beeswax wraps! 

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