Honeybees strike gold at Sheepdrove

Honeybees use every possible sunny day to go out gold-digging around the farm. Sheepdrove's crops, herbs and flower-rich grasslands influence the honey harvest. In turn, they pollinate crops such as beans, fruit and vegetables.

Sheepdrove Organic Farm is a dream site for Norman Davies, the bee farmer who works the Sheepdrove estate.

"There are so many wild flowers here as well as the farm crops. My favourite sources of nectar and pollen for the honeybees at Sheepdrove are the fantastic white clover, spring-sown beans, fruit trees and wild flowers."

Norman looks after dozens of honeybee hives and harvests hundreds of jars of honey every year at Sheepdrove. But what is his favourite crop for a delicious honey?

"Sainfoin honey is an amazing yellow gold colour. Like sunshine in a jar!" says Norman. Sainfoin is related to peas, has pink flowers, and is popular with farmers for hay, silage and for building soil fertility naturally. We cut most of the sainfoin for silage but leave strips uncut for the bees to work the flowers into late summer.

Clover is perhaps the key source for the bees, and we have vast amounts of it in our pastures. Bean flowers sometimes bring a magical touch to the honey - if you see delicate swirls of sugar crystals appear, that's the bean influence!

Types of Honey

Sheepdrove sells a clear, runny honey. Set honey is now available, for a trial period only. Please tell us what you think.

Look out for the 'special edition' chunk honey with a generous slice of real honeycomb in the jar. “Yes the wax is perfectly edible,” explains Norman. “Honeycomb is the best way to eat honey. Spread it onto hot toast, or simply eat it off a teaspoon!”.

Look out for honey on sale in our Family Butcher Shops in Bristol and Maida Vale, London - and at the Sheepdrove web shop! 

Please note: All the hives are on our farm, however this honey cannot be classed as 'organic' because the bees are able to fly for miles to gather nectar and pollen, and their journeys could cover flowers on non-organic land.

Beekeeping

Honey bees have been in the news frequently in recent years. Bees have had a hard time, and beekeeping has become more popular as people wish to help these very important pollinators. Watch this video guide to beekeeping from the BBC Farming Today team.