It is hard to believe that a year has passed since we sponsored our first beehive at our local SW Honey Farms on the South Downs.
Our bees pollinated 130 million flowers!
In that time, some amazing things have happened in our hive. Our queen bee has been busy producing between 100,000 and 200,000 honey bees. The maximum number of honey bees in our hive at any one time this year was around 80,000 bees. The amount of flowers that were pollinated based on the amount of honey produced is around 130 million flowers. This is an incredible number and we couldn’t be more delighted with the result of our sponsorship!
Our hive also contributed to creating a new colony of bees. This is called splitting and involves taking 2 frames of brood and a frame of food. They are then moved over 3 miles away so the flying bees do not fly back to their original hive location and a new queen is introduced. They are then fed and have become a full working colony for this season! This means we have also contributed to the creation of a new colony, which is amazing.
We are delighted to be supporters of this local family-run business, which started with just a few hives and has now grown to have many apiaries all the way from Worthing to Chichester. As well as taking care of their hives, they offer beekeeping courses and sell honey products.
As with most things in the climate crisis, there is both good and bad news for the bees in the UK. However big pushes for gardeners to stop mowing, and plant bee-attracting flowers and wildflowers are small steps toward a big change.
There are always more ways to get involved. Adopting a beehive is a clever initiative, and SW Honey Farms now has 31 corporate sponsors, enabling them to increase the reach and care for their bees.
