An independent, family run business with a background and beekeeping knowledge of 32+ years. Supplying both natural and raw honey, nuclei, queen bees, beekeeping equipment and offering free, helpful advice. The business supplies retail shops, markets and other outlets wholesale or in bulk. Pollination services to commercial growers and farmers available. Private tuition and talks on request. Extra Information: Honey is a natural energy giving food made up of two main sugars Glucose and fructose. In the UK all natural, unheated honey will eventually set known as crystallisation. It is the glucose that crystallizes in the honey. Also as a general rule light coloured honeys have a light/mild flavour and darker honeys have a fuller rich flavour. Like a wine each year is different - never the same twice. Commercially heat processed honey rarely crystallises. Honey will store for many years in an airtight container in a cool place. It has been found in Egyptian tombs and still said to be edible. Honey has been known to cure stomach ulcers, heal infectious wounds when applied to dressings used by hay-fever sufferers and used in cosmetics. It is also greatly used in cooking and making one of the oldest alcoholic beverages 'Mead'. Our bees generally produce two crops of honey each year. The first crop is foraged from spring flowers in April -May. This is from various sources which include field crops such as oilseed rape and field bean including many fruit varieties such as apple and wild plum. Other trees include Sycamore and horse chestnut. Our 2nd crop is gathered by the bees in July. In our area this is partly from woodland flowers including blackberries, sweet chestnut, lime and willow herb. Other honey sources include clover, dandelion, thistle naming but a few. As the bees and other insects search out nectar they more importantly pollinate wild flowers helping trees and plants set seed. This in turn feeds birds throughout the year especially in winter. Bees also collect the pollen which is high in protein used to feed their young.