WELCOME TO WOODLAND BEES

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEES

Honey bees have been around for a long time. Their original habitat was in tree hollows within natural woodlands. This is where they would create a bee hive with natural wax comb. There is plenty of evidence to show that honey bees have lived and thrived successfully for thousands of years. That is until recently. Their continued existence is now threatened by environmental change and the use of chemicals and pesticides. That's why, at Woodland Bees, we put the bees at the core of everything we do and why we believe:

• The natural environment should be conserved and protected.

• Chemicals and pesticides that may threaten honey bees and other pollinators should be strictly controlled or, in some cases, banned altogether.

• Beekeepers and bee farmers should put the health and welfare of honey bees at the centre of everything they do.

• Both the Welsh Government and the UK Government should have strong and robust pollinator strategies, together with appropriate legal and policy measures - backed up by effective action on the ground.

SUSTAINABLE AND ETHICAL BEEKEEPING

Many of us have an ideal image of beekeeping. We see a couple of cottage bee hives in a country garden being looked after by a kindly beekeeper in a white bee suit. Unfortunately, this is often a long way from the reality of both modern beekeeping and intensive modern commercial bee farming. The emphasis now is on getting the bees to do what we want them to do in the way we want them to do it. This can cause colony stress together with disease and ill-health. This in turn leads to the use of chemical treatments, and techniques such as artificial 'bee breeding'. At its worst this results in exploiting the bees. At Woodland Bees we have rejected this approach. We: 

• Are developing a system of bee farming based on sustainable beekeeping principles and practice.

• Put the health and welfare of our bees as our first priority.

• Keep only native or near-native British 'dark bees' because they are ideally adapted to our local climate here in Wales.

• See the primary job of beekeepers and bee farmers as protecting and sustaining the population of healthy honey bees. 

• Adopted methods of apiary management that keep intervention in the life of our bee colonies to a minimum.

Happy and healthy bees produce high quality honey!​