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It has been a hot and busy month here at Thorne Head Office! We have now wrapped up our nuclei orders for the season, but thanks to the recent spell of warm, settled weather, our Queens are coming along beautifully. Click below to order calm and gentle Buckfast crossed openly mated UK queens bred in Nottinghamshire & Devon. |
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We offer a wide selection of buckets and tanks, along with handy accessories like openers, rests, movers, and more! Here are some of our most popular buckets... |
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A durable plastic bucket (63lb/28.5 kg capacity) featuring a recessed rubber-sealed lid and a valve. Available either on its own or paired with a stainless steel double strainer. Make sure to check out the compatible uncapping ledge. |
Price for Bucket & Valve: £17.50
Price including strainer: £30 |
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30lb Polythene Bucket & Valve |
Easy to clean with snap on lid and metal handle complete with nylon honey valve. (13.6kg/9.5 litres) |
Price for Bucket & Valve: £20.40 |
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15lb/30lb Polythene Bucket |
Available in both 15lb and 30lb, these buckets are easy to clean with snap-on lids. Both sizes nest saving considerably on storage space. |
Price for 15lb Bucket: £3
Price for 10 x 15lb Buckets: £25
Price for 30lb Bucket: £4.40
Price for 10 x 30lb Buckets: £38.40 |
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As honey show season is approaching we are offering 10% off our Trilby. |
Complete your judging or stewarding apparel with these lightweight, washable and hygienic trilbies. Available in three sizes; S, M and L. |
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Ever thought about trying section honey? Right now, we're offering 10% off all section products! |
Included in the offer; section squares, section racks, hanging sections, and ross rounds. |
This offer will be running through to the end of July. |
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Not All Hornets Are Villains |
These dudes are giving hornets a bad name. |
It wasn’t long ago that we were seen as feisty but fair! Think of the children’s magazine The Hornet and my favourite football team has the nickname The Hornets. |
Now, with the appearance of the infamous Yellow-Legged Hornet, formerly known as the Asian Hornet, all that general goodwill is changing. And that is a shame because we are a native species and are already pretty hard done to given that you’re gradually removing our preferred natural habitat of oak woods and water meadows. Despite the attacks on our favoured locations we don’t go out of our way to bother you – unlike our rather vulgar cousin, the common wasp. We largely feed on flies and when was the last time you heard of a hornet actually stinging a human? Mind you, there are a few I wouldn’t mind jabbing given half a chance! |
Ok, it is true that we are partial to the odd bee (well a girl has to eat), but we are not out to destroy entire colonies. Ok, I’ll level with you, we would if we could, but a fit colony puts up a strong defence and bees are pretty fearless when it comes to defending their hive. |
The Yellow Legged Hornet has changed the sentiment towards us. Now ‘hornet’ seems to be associated with an invading species that is out to decimate bees. And the Yellow-Legged Hornet might just do that, but please don’t lump us in with this nasty character. We are well armed but it is like we are frigate with cannons compared to the newcomer, which is more like a nuclear armed warship. Don’t mess with them! Their sting is indescribable. Think of loading a shotgun, lifting it up, pointing at your big toe and pulling the trigger. That doesn’t even come close to the pain associated with the sting from one of these brutes - so we are told. |
Continue your fight to stop the invasion by all means, but please discriminate fairly. There is a fine balance that needs to be maintained and you could upset this. If you are out to catch Yellow-Legged Hornets then please use traps that don’t kill the passer by. If you had to say eradicate a new invasive jelly fish from the sea, you wouldn’t drag a net to catch it and thereby killing all the fish – would you? You would! Come on! |
The watch-word with traps is Bycatch Friendly. Bee by catch friendly and excuse the pun. We are feisty and fair but we are not renowned for our sense of humour. |
Henrietta Hornet (AKA Russell Connor) |
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As we roll into July, we’ve been reflecting on what’s been quite a mixed month here at Thorne HQ in Lincolnshire. June brought us both a strong honey flow and a fair bit of head-scratching over queens and colonies that have been doing their own thing! |
First off, we’ve had a few casts turning up in unexpected places, like this empty hive. It seems no matter how closely you watch, there’s always one that slips through the net. |
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Unfortunately, not all colonies have requeened well. We’ve come across a few drone layers this month, which is always a disappointment. It’s a reminder that good weather doesn’t always mean good mating if the timing isn’t quite right. Because of this, we’re already working on breeding new queens for next year. |
The honey flow has remained strong throughout June, which is unusual, as we normally see a June gap in forage. Thankfully, this is keeping the bees happy for now. We have seen bees expanding quicker than we can add frames in the hives, as you can see from this photo! |
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However, we’ve also come across several colonies that have become pollen bound which we think may be due to lack of a laying queen in some cases. Without eggs or brood to feed, the nurse bees have packed every available cell with pollen, which has clogged up the brood nest. These colonies can really struggle to recover, so we’ve been going through and swapping frames out to give them some space and hopefully encourage better laying if a queen is present. |
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On a similar note, it’s always a bit of a waiting game when you’re not sure if a colony has accepted its new queen. But instead of waiting for weeks hoping to see eggs, we’ve started popping in a frame of eggs from another colony into any we’re unsure of. It’s a great way to test things; if they draw out queen cells, we know they’re queenless. If not, we just have to wait until she gets going. |
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So, June has been a real mixed bag – lots of promise and productivity, but a few challenges thrown in to keep us on our toes. July should start to calm down a little here in terms of taking nucs off for sale and so we should be able to fully concentrate on setting the bees up well for the rest of the season (and dare I say, winter?!). |
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The lecture video release for the first Friday in July, at 5.15pm UK local time was Professor Jacques van Alphen’s talk on the paradox of the old queen leaving. |
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Professor Jacques van Alphen’s lecture on the paradox of the old queen leaving |
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After more than a century of often ingenious research into the behaviour of honey bees, many puzzles have been solved, but there are still unanswered questions. One of these questions is why the queen mother leaves with a swarm and leaves the old nest to a daughter. In the animal kingdom, the rule is that daughters leave the nest where they were born and settle elsewhere. Why has the evolution of honeybees led to this exceptional behaviour? Professor Jacques van Alphen discusses the possible reasons for the old queen leaving, and disadvantages and benefits of the old queen staying or leaving. |
In addition to the lecture itself, during last year’s show Jacques van Alphen had a chat with Val on the subject which you can see by clicking the button below. |
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This year, The National Honey Show will be launching a new online system for logging your show entries for our entries secretary. We will be aiming to launch the system at the beginning of August, so in August please visit our website for full details. |
Please note most of the classes will have new class numbers, and many also have additional details and clarifications. New classes and those with new details are marked with a black triangular symbol in the schedule of classes. |
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We also have some exciting new classes for the 2025 show including Class 126: A Decorated Beehive: Painted or pyrography maximum 2 supers, no live bees. Do have a go: ALL entries into this class will receive a £50 voucher from EH Thorne (redeemable against £200+ spend). |
If you are helping out at any beekeeping show this summer, do ask Val: publicity@honeyshow.co.uk if you would like leaflets, and also for our special leaflet featuring the junior classes to encourage junior bee enthusiasts to take part in the National Honey Show. |
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Example of a decorated beehive for Class 126 at the 2025 National Honey Show. |
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We look forward to seeing you at this year’s show:
National Honey Show Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th October 2025 at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9RT, UK. |
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Welcoming our new CEO, Hannah Wood |
We are excited to share news of our new CEO Hannah Wood. With two decades spent living and working across East Africa – including roles with the UK Foreign Office, British Council and running a sustainable tourism business in Tanzania – she’s passionate about climate resilience and conservation. |
Now based in Monmouthshire, Hannah is looking forward to working with Bees for development, and she says, “Real impact happens when people and nature thrive together – and that’s Bees for Development’s strength!” |
Read the full blog post HERE. |
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Monmouth Bee Festival - 14 June, 2025 |
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Over 400 visitors attended this year’s Monmouth Bee Festival at the beautiful Nelson Garden, helping us to celebrate bees and pollinators and the vital role they play in our lives. The Festival coincided with the Great Big Green Week - a Welsh celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. |
Visitors enjoyed a wide range of hands-on, creative activities including Beekeeping displays, Bee Walks, Bee House Making, Skep and Willow Basketry demonstrations, Seed Ball and Badge Making, and Face Painting. Guests also had the opportunity to taste and buy honey from around the world, enjoy locally brewed mead, fresh strawberries from Windmill Hill Fruits, and cakes from Isabel’s Bakehouse. |
Thank you to everyone who came along to support such a wonderful event and to our sponsors Monmouthshire Building Society, Monmouth Town Council and Climate Cymru. |
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Bee Walks with Silver Circle Distillery @ Humble By Nature, Penallt, Monmouthshire – 20 July |
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Looking for something or somewhere to go on 20 July - come and join Bees for Development in the beautiful Welsh countryside to explore the fascinating world of bees, from fluffy, queen bumble bees 3cm long to almost hairless, Yellow-faced bees only 3mm long! |
For more information and booking, please click HERE |
Ciaran Clark will be taking you on a walk at our Patron Kate Humble's small mixed livestock farm Humble by Nature in the Monmouthshire's Wye Valley. It is managed as much for wildlife as for livestock, working in partnership with the Gwent Wildlife Trust, the Woodland Trust and WWT. The farm is also home to a collaborative community of rural artisan businesses including Silver Circle Distillery. |
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For more information about Humble by Nature, please click HERE |
Bees of Monmouthshire Recording Project Update |
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In an era of climate change and increasing habitat loss, it’s becoming harder for bees to find suitable nesting sites and enough of the forage they need to feed their offspring. |
The Bumble Bee Conservation Trust reported the worse year on record for bumble bees in 2024, but for most of the other 250 UK bee species we can’t even ask the question. We simply don’t have enough data to know whether these species are in trouble. |
We hear so much about the need to protect pollinators, but protecting and creating habitats, like wildflower meadows, is only half of the battle. |
Read the full blog post HERE |
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ZOOTECHNICAL Beekeeping Management
by Pablo Montesinos Arraiz |
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"This publication is about utilising honey bees for their products and breeding the best possible stock for production and profitability” |
Northern Bee Books (1st ed. 2024)
Paperback
148 pages
£22 |
Reviewed by Ann Chilcott
Scottish Expert Beemaster and author of The Bee Listener |
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Zootechnical Beekeeping Management involves the domestication, breeding, and improvement of animals. This publication is about utilising honey bees for their products and breeding the best possible stock for production and profitability. The author is veterinarian Pablo Montesinos Arraiz and retired Professor of Apiculture, and Director of the Apiculture Station of the Universidad Lisandro Alvarado, UCLA Barquisimeto, Venezuela. The described methods, models, and systems have all been tested and used successfully at this educational centre. |
There are eight chapters with useful references at the end of each one. |
Arraiz lists important parameters for assessing breeder queens including zootechnical behavioural, general zootechnical, beekeeping production, and reproduction criteria. The parameters are coded using mnemonics such as HRH meaning honey receiver hive. It would have been useful to have had a removable page with these abbreviations listed for easy reference throughout the following text. |
Readers who find flow charts, tables, schematic diagrams, and mind maps useful may enjoy the organisation of the information presented, but others may find them challenging and difficult to follow with ease. There are however, fifty photographs to aid a hive inspection to estimate the number of frames with eggs, open brood, sealed brood, and bees in the brood chamber at the time of assessment in the process of evaluating a good queen. To aid queen evaluation further, there are fifteen photographs showing queens of all shapes, sizes, and colours. |
The chapter that resonates with me is on animal welfare in beekeeping, and Arraiz quotes from the World Health Organisation for Animal Health, but he laments that it has not included honey bees as livestock under their guidelines. |
Beekeepers involved with commercial beekeeping and queen breeding will find Zootechnical Beekeeping Management an interesting and informative read. |
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Newburgh Industrial Estate, Cupar Road, Newburgh, Fife, KY14 6HA |
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Oakley Green Farm, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 4PZ |
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Chilbolton Down Farm, Chilbolton Down, Stockbridge, SO20 6BU |
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Quince Honey Farm, Aller Cross, South Molton, Devon, EX36 3RD |
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Beehive Business Park, Rand, Lincolnshire, LN8 5NJ |
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