A few months ago we welcomed a hive of bees on to the farm. My brother, Cam is in charge of their upkeep – along with his partner Lucy. To be honest, I was rather looking forward to eating fresh honey!
The bee hive is located in our very back paddock. Out of the way of the ducks and animals, and the bees are still capable of travelling far and wide to do what they do best. Honey is a great benefit from the bees, plus we have the added benefit of improved pollination for our fruit trees. Bees feel like a great project to try!
Cam and Lucy have undertaken a beekeeping course and studied books, but are still learning on the job. It’s great to see them both learning and getting real satisfaction from being outside and working with animals. I also really enjoy having family at the farm.
Benefits of bees
Honey. Delicious honey. I love eating great honey, and hopefully we’ll be able to produce some really good honey to eat. If there’s any left over, we might try and sell some too!
Pollination will also help with our fruit tree yields. More fruit to eat and sell!
We’re trialling a range of different projects to see what works best on our farm. Bees and honey have been really enjoyable so far and seem like they’ll be a part of a great future here at Heritage Farm.
UPDATE: I have tried some honey. And it is just as delicious as I had hoped! I will try and provide a more in-depth blog post on honey in the future.
Photos taken by Bonnie Campbell
