- Since 2014 -

Ben's Berkshire Bees

Raw and Pure West Berkshire Honey

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What makes West Berkshire Honey so Special?

Our Story

West Berkshire Beekeeping

We are a Beefarm based in Thacham with hives across West Berkshire, producing high-quality raw and pure honey and wax products.

We are proud members of the British Beefarmers' Association, and Ben is a Qualifed Beekeeper with the British Beekeepers Assoication.

Our apiaries are located throughout West Berkshire, and at the height of summer, we have over 10 million bees buzzing over Newbury, Thatcham, Theale and the surrounding villages.

These industrious pollinators work tirelessly, pollinating approximately 200 billion flowers and contributing to the health of our local environment.

Our bees have won prizes for their honey at the National Honey Show, Berkshire Honey show and from the Great Taste Award Judges.

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Where to find us in the run up to Christmas!

This weekend you will be able to buy our honey and soaps at the Good Hope Farm Christmas Market in Hamstead Marshell between 10:30 and 13:00. A proportion of the sales value will be supporting Good Hope Farm.

I'm super excited to have received a grant for my Future Bee project. It will enable me to install internal monitoring into another 30 hives, across my apiaries. This gives a live update on each hive so I know which need to be checked and which are doing just fine.

This will help we reduce the number of inspections needed, reducing the disruption caused to bees, improving bee health and cutting our carbon footprint. If you'd like to support us take a look at:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/future-bee

This week was the National Honey Show, where the very best of honey and beeswax is brought together and carefully judged. We were delighted to come 1st in the Berkshire beeswax class, also getting a Commended in the National version as well. We were a awarded a 3rd place for our lovely runny honey too!

The next Newbury Farmers' Market is this Sunday (2nd November) in the Market Place. You can buy Honey, Bread, Eggs, Cheese, Meat, Fish, Seafood, Seed Oils, Cider, Kambucha and sweet treats all direct for the grower/producer. #shoplocal #supportbritishfarmers

The final results of the lip balm displayed we 3D printed.

We had a fantastic time at the Newbury Show last weekend. I hardly took any pictures so this is one of me winning one of the Trophies from the Honey show. I placed in 12 of the competitive classes which I was pretty pleased with.

Over the course of the two days I spoke with so many people about bees, honey. Our display of queen rearing and nuc production (under our sister company@sipahoneybees ) was very popular. We sold a lot of honey.

It was great to share the space in the Produce Tent with so many local businesses including: @stainswickfarm, @delphicbrew, @great_british_mead_company, @smartgreensuk, @orchardrevival

This weekend will our bees last outing for the year at the Newbury Artisan Market. We will be in the market place from 10am to 4pm.

@renartgades

#Newbury #Artisanmarket #localhoney

This weekend is the Newbury Show, one of my favourite events of the year. This year we are exhibiting in the Produce Tent. We will have displays on commercial beekeeping and queen rearing. We'll also have some bees you can come and look at.

Along side our displays we will be selling honey, honey soaps, lip balms etc.

Also in the Produce Tent will be Seed Oil, Mead, Apple Pressing and much more.

@newbury_show @newbury_showground

My son have created a little rock shop! He will be on the Ben's Berkshire Bees stall.at the Acland Hall.this afternoon.

Delicious scrambled eggs. We often post about why you should buy honey from a beekeeper rather than cheap supermarket honey, but the same is also true for eggs. These eggs from @wanderingfeathersltd at the @newbury_farmers_market have an intense colour and beautiful flavour.

I have been enjoying sourcing and testing lots of different honeys as part of my planning for honey tasting experiences. This week I had batch arrival. All South American. Avocado honey which has a wonderful deep colour, and a treacly smokey taste. Coffee which is meant to have similar medicinal properties to Manuka, and Lychee honey which is sweet and floral.

We are jarring a lot of honey at the moment!

@freemanhardingltd

Can you spot the bee with orange pollen in the pollen basket on her rear legs?

I've been prepping some soft set honey. We use honey that would normally set fast and mix it in this machine. It helps it develop a smooth buttery texture as it sets.

The interview that I recorded with Kirsten O'Brien from BBC Radio Berkshire is going to be broadcast this Thursday (8th) between 10 and 12 on Kirsten's show.

Newbury Farmers' Market is a co operative of great local producers. Held in the market place on the 1st Sunday of each month. Thames Valley Farmers' Markets Stainswick Farm Green Shed Cider Company Ltd

I've been prepping some of the honey for tomorrow honey tasting event. There are still a few tickets left if you'd like to book on the website.

We have another busy weekend coming up. On Saturday evening we have our first ever honey tasting evening - some Rosemary and Oak honey arrived yesterday and I'm hoping some Cactus honey will arrive before the weekend to add to the range we will be sampling. Then on Sunday I will back in the Market Place for the Newbury Farmers Market with our bees.

@thamesvalleymarkets #honey #westberkshire

Especially for this weekends Artisan Market - we are offering a 10% discount to anyone who bring a completed copy of this voucher.

This Sunday we will at the Newbury Artisan Market from 10-4. We will have our bees with us so come and see if you can spot the queen! We will have our full range of lip balms, honey soaps and of course our West Berkshire Honey.

@renartgades #Newbury #Artisanmarket #localhoney

We are back in stock of natural lip balms.

This afternoon Ihad the pleasure of recording with Kirstan O'brien for BBC Radio Berkshire. We recorded a segment about bee farming, which will feature on Kirstan's morning ahow in a few weeks' time. I learnt about the challenge of demonstrating a hive inspection for radio - fortunately, the bees were very well behaved. #bbcberkshire #beefarming #beekeepingontheradio

This is where we be over the next few months.

I don't normally do cutouts as my DIY skills aren't the best. In case I was asked to help remove these bees by a builder. They removed the bricks, and I transferred the comb and the bees. It was pretty hot even in late afternoon.

I was asked to look at some bees in a waste bin. I initially thought that they may be interested in the rubbish but after taking a fee sacks out I found this box with a large colony established within it! I've never seen anything quite like it.

This is a swarm that was added to one of our hives at Thirtovee less than a week ago. They have drawn all the frames and need to have a super added as soon as possible.

This Sunday we will be at the Newbury Artisan Market on Northbrook Street. We will be bringing some of our honey bees along with us. Pop along to see us and see if you can spot the Queen Bee!

This is a newly established colony we rescued from a compost bin.

After selling out we are restocked with lip balms. We have a natural, vanilla and cherry scent.

Last Sunday we had a lovely time at the Benham Estate's Open Farm Sunday. We had a stall to talk about bees, I got through 3 sheets of stickers for children, as there were so many families. There were tractor rides, talks and demonstrations and stalls Above all there was a lot of big kit!

The blackberry is out in full bloom very early this year. This is always a great source of nectar for our bees.

We've had a busy start to the season for swarm collections. Here is a few of the 12 calls we have responded to so far!

We have a new product available - lipbalm sticks, we have Natural, Vanilla and Cherry.

These will be on the website soon.

This set up is trying to get bees out of an
airbrick in a building. The idea is to trap out the bees from the home they have chosen and persuade them to use a hive I have provided.

This colony we housed after it had formed it's nest in the outer wall of a building. We moved the comb into frames and then the bees followed into the box. We have then relocated them to a new location.

This was a nice swarm collection from yesterday. The tube is from my beevac.

We are in Newbury until 1pm at the @newbury_farmers_market. We have our bees on their first outing of the year!

Producers that are here include: @fermentedbygeorge Green Shed Cider Company Ltd @iowtomatoes Stainswick Farm

Yesterday we collected this swarm from Newbury Town Centre. It was pretty big!

We added a feature to our website to report honey bees swarms. As part of our responsible beekeeping approach we offer free swarm collection within the areas surrounding our apiaries: Newbury, Thatcham and surrounding villages.

I'm really excited to be taking part in the Newbury Artisan Market for the first time in a few weeks hosted by @renartgades. So many local businesses tell me how good the market is. Why not come along and see us. If the temperature is high enough we will bring our bees along!

As the temperatures raise our bees will start to make an appearance on our stall at events. You'll be able to see if you are able to spot the Queen!

The bees are developing well so far this season.

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