SW Honey Farms - Improving the world, one bee at a time.
In January 2022, Brighton Silver became the proud sponsors of a local Bee hive at SW Honey Farms. Established in 2019 by Stuart Weekes, SW Honey Farms is a family run business located in West Sussex. Starting with just 10 hives they now have apiaries all across the Sussex coast from Worthing to Chichester.
Update 17th June 2022
So far on the bee farm it has been a very busy May/June. With the bees wanting to swarm any chance they get and bringing loads of spring honey, they have finally calmed down a bit and are enjoying a little rest before the summer honey begins which it looks like it is about to start already!
The spring honey extraction is now in full swing!
Once the honey frames are taken from the hive it goes to the extraction room where the team uncap it and put it into a spinner to spin the honey out and extract it into containers. After all the honey has been extracted it is then ready to be jarred. The honey source is from three different sources - horse chestnut, oil seed rape and cherry blossom. It has a very nice light yet punchy flavour.
Update 9th August 2022
Your hive is currently working tirelessly to bring in honey from wild summer flowers.
From looking at the pollens coming into the hive the main source for this year's summer honey is from blackberry, lime trees and sweet chestnut. The blackberry pollen is a greyish green colour whereas the lime is a bright vibrant orange colour seen in the picture on the left.
Not only are they collecting the honey and pollen, they are also pollinating millions of flowers in the process which is what these adoptions are all about. For your 4 jars of honey to have been collected, the bees have visited around 4,000,000 flowers and pollinated them in the process. They will be working these wild flowers until the middle of August where the next round of honey extraction will begin!
Update 9th March 2023
As the weather will soon start to warm up, the bees in their hive are getting busy preparing for the arrival of spring. Here's a glimpse of what they do to ensure their survival and productivity during the upcoming season.
First and foremost, the bees start to clean the hive. They remove any dead bees, debris, and waste from the previous months, which helps maintain a hygienic living environment. They also start to repair and rebuild any damaged parts of the hive to make sure it's strong and sturdy.
Next, the bees start to produce more brood. The queen bee lays more eggs, and the workers start to feed the larvae to ensure they grow strong and healthy. This is crucial because the new generation of bees will be responsible for pollinating flowers and producing honey during the upcoming season.
As the temperatures rise, the bees start to venture out of the hive to gather food. They fly long distances to collect nectar and pollen from flowers, which they bring back to the hive to store for later use. This is essential because the bees need to build up their honey stores to survive during periods of scarce food in the future. This usually happens around June time and is called "the June gap"
Finally, the bees start to swarm. This is when a new queen bee is born, and the old queen bee and a portion of the worker bees leave the hive to establish a new colony. Swarming usually occurs in early spring when there's an abundance of food and good weather. This is stopped by me, the beekeeper, to keep the original queen in the hive and I do what is called a weekly inspection. Inspections are done weekly because this is the life cycle of a queen cell and they can be destroyed before a wax cap is put on which is when the bees will decide to swarm. Without a queen cell left in the hive they will not swarm (unless one is missed!)
Find out more at swhoneyfarms.com
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