June Sunrise & Hive checks… → Holt Hall Apiary

We’ve been incredibly busy-ee, buzzing around the farm over the last few months. With the warm weather in full swing, this period marks the peak season for harvesting our exquisite honey. Spring rewarded us with an abundant harvest, and we experienced a brief June gap, which provided us a well-deserved pause to gear up for some exciting transformations at the farm. During this time, we revamped our website to reflect our new branding. We aimed for a light and refreshing aesthetic to beautifully showcase our delightful light honey. After much effort, our makeover is complete! We invite you to explore our online store and enjoy our elegant new website. Take a moment to browse and see if something catches your eye!

Next onto the farm, we have welcomed Suzannah to our team. Suzannah, a landscape and nature photographer, has joined us to enhance our website and manage our social media channels. Her mission is to beautifully showcase the exquisite honey we produce and tell the captivating story of our family-run farm. We want people to connect with the origins of their honey and understand the unique narrative of our farm, complete with all the quirks that accompany family farm life.

Suzannah shares our passion for honey and is a fervent supporter of local produce as well as health and wellbeing. Her love for nature and photography aligns perfectly with our vision. We are thrilled to see how she brings our story to life, highlighting the values and dedication that drive us. Suzannah will craft engaging content that not only highlights our products but also the essence of our farm’s traditions and the joy of working together as a family.

Meet our delightful duo, Alice and Abbey, the charming sister donkeys of our farm! These affectionate creatures are neighbours to our buzzing bees, and their soothing brays bring a touch of nostalgia to our daily farm life. Known for their gentle and loving nature, Alice and Abbey are a favourite among visitors, but gaining their trust requires patience and a pocket full of ginger biscuits. They are most vocal in the morning when they kindly let us know they are ready for breakfast! Interesting fact: Donkeys are known for their intelligence and strong sense of loyalty, making them wonderful companions on the farm. Their presence not only enriches the farm experience but also brings joy to everyone around.

Our farm bees are buzzing with activity, diligently gathering nectar from the vibrant summer blooms to make our 100% natural British summer honey. Their numbers are increasing as we’ve successfully made new nucleus hives and transitioned some into a full hives. Establishing a new hive is manageable and rewarding, especially when seeing frames brimming with nectar, eggs, and young larvae. These tiny larvae will evolve into industrious workers as summer progresses! There’s ample honeycomb available for the bees to expand into their new abode. Bees naturally tend to move upwards, so once this hive has filled up, we’ll introduce supers to grant them more room to flourish during the warm summer months.