Contact Us - Bermondsey Street Bees

CONTACT

How To Find Us

103 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3XB

GET IN TOUCH

Dale Gibson
Beekeeping and Apis Consulting
dale@bermondseystreetbees.co.uk

@bstreetbees
@bermondseybees
@apisconsult

Please note that we do not offer swarm collection services.
Visit bbka.org.uk/swarm for your nearest collector.

Sarah Wyndham Lewis
Press, Events, Sales, Honey Sommelier
Tel: 07836 592415
sarah@bermondseystreetbees.co.uk

@sarahwyndham.lewis
@plantingforhoneybees
@honeysommelierlondon

Please e-mail Sarah to join our mailing
list for honey and event updates

To shop at our online store, click here

bstreetbees

We’re very really looking forward to the virtual

We’re very really looking forward to the virtual National Honey Show. A quick and easy registration at www.honeyshow.co.uk gives you free access to this year’s online Lecture Programme & Trade Hall. You can even join us in making a donation to tide over the 2020 @nationalhoneyshow ... #nationalhoneyshow #donation #beecraftcameos #thisis2020

I bet that nobody else keeps bees who are contract

I bet that nobody else keeps bees who are contractually obliged to “comply with harbourmaster’s instructions & current Notices to Mariners.” These bees are! (I just hope that they got the Harbourmaster’s & Mariners’ permission to have that pampas grass outside their residence). #sustainablebeekeeping #harbourmaster #mariners #pampasgrass

Repost • @northernbeebooks BOOK REVIEW - By @sar

Repost • @northernbeebooks BOOK REVIEW - By @sarahwyndham.lewis for Eva Crane’s 2020 reprint: ‘Honey, A Comprehensive Survey’ (Link in bio to buy.)

(Image: Painting of a honey hunter near the Toghwana Dam, Matopo Hills, Rhodesia - the only rock painting known where the use of smoke is shown - p.486.)

“Eva Crane died in 2007 but her lifetime of research still bears constant revisiting. It’s exciting then, to see one of her most wide-ranging books ‘Honey – A Comprehensive Survey’ now reprinted and accessible to a wide audience. For me, it replaces a battered, very second-hand copy that I bought at vast expense a few years ago. It sits on my bookshelf alongside many of her other titles, all of which I use regularly, especially in my work as a professional Honey Sommelier and when writing/speaking about forage.

The great joy of this particular book lies in the word ‘comprehensive’. Although dated (having first been published in 1975), it covers a huge range of topics that remain central to all beekeepers’ knowledge. From the biological and physical properties of honey to technical information on processing and storing liquid honey and dealing with comb, it offers both facts and tantalising signposts towards deeper research.

There are good sections too on commercial honey processing and the world trade in honey, both of course out of date, but easily used as a starting point for seeking contemporary data. Some of the content is contributions from other experts, but there are glorious chapters written by Eva Crane herself, especially the ones on forage and the language and history of honey. Her voice shines through them, as with all her work, combining her matchless knowledge and scientific clarity with her great love of all things bee.

Let’s be clear though that this is not a book for idle glancing. It is a serious reference work, presenting much of its data in formal, scientific formats. I am not a trained scientist, so consulting it often requires high-level concentration, especially in marrying the text with highly detailed tables and diagrams...”

Read Sarah’s full review on our NBB Facebook page. Find her @honeysommelierlondon / @plantingforh

In the USA, honey must have a moisture content of

In the USA, honey must have a moisture content of 18.6% or less. (Above that level of moisture, honey is claimed to be susceptible to fermentation). In the EU, honey is allowed a moisture content of up to 20%. Is this the only example of a lower food standard on our side of the Atlantic? #honey #foodstandards #moisturecontent #justasking

With all of our hives prepared for Winter, we’ll

With all of our hives prepared for Winter, we’ll have to rely on virtual beekeeping until February next year when we’ll crack open the boxes for a quick check on the overwintered bees. So we’ll be posting a few inspirational reminders of busy worker bees to tide us over for the next one-third of a year! #sustainablebeekeeping #overwintering #stores #pollenandnectar #winter #aurevoir

A distinct pleasure to join the Board of Directors

A distinct pleasure to join the Board of Directors of the new-style @beecraftmag as it Zooms (literally) into its seond century. As “the independent voice of British beekeeping”, we will campaign, communicate & celebrate the connection of honeybees to all aspects of our environment. #beecraft #honeybees #newlook #sustainablebeekeeping #environment #connection #beemagazine #100yearsold #themagazinenotme

“In a fatal mix of fashion & ignorance, urban hi

“In a fatal mix of fashion & ignorance, urban hive numbers have soared”. No beating about the bush in @plantingforhoneybees article @telegraph today. We hear echoes of this from beekeepers in Paris, Berlin & New York. Is the solution to plant more, or to hive less? So we’re doing both. #plantingforhoneybees #sarahwyndhamlewis #honeysommelierlondon #sundaytelegraph #urbanbees #fatalmix #weredoingboth #actionnotwords #newparadigm #lessismore

Sunshine, showers & social distancing at our Bees

Sunshine, showers & social distancing at our Bees & Planting talk @bostse1’s Diversity Garden this afternoon. Volunteer community gardeners are on the frontline of urban pollinator forage provision, mental well-being & sustainability awareness. Speaker fee donation to @britishbeekeepers on its way. #sustainablebeekeeping #diversitygarden #communitygarden #bost #bostse1 #plantingforhoneybees #bermondseystreetbees #bbka #britishbeekeepersassociation #canyoudigit

Just a step away from Borough Market, there’s a

Just a step away from Borough Market, there’s a pop-up @meniergallery with a laid-back grocery/lifestyle/cooking vibe. It’s called “Menier Store” (yes, there are slabs of Menier chocolate on sale!). It also stocks a shelf-full of our raw honeys, treatments, soap & tea-towels ! #menierstore #camdengrocer #bermondseystreethoney #sustainablebeekeeping #londonpopup #foodiepopup #menier #menierchocolate

Posted @withregram • @provenancehub A HUGE congr

Posted @withregram • @provenancehub A HUGE congratulations to our friends at @bstreetbees on being awarded a total of 15 Stars at the Great Taste Awards 2020, including a top 3 Star Award for their Limited Edition Bermondsey Street Honey.

"Simply perfect. Shivers down the spine on first sniff. An indefinable complexity, intriguing and exciting. And wow, what a finish! Almost endless."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves! Available to buy now in strictly limited quantities.

I just listened to the dry run of this presentatio

I just listened to the dry run of this presentation - and it is positively amazing! @honeysommelierlondon

For the second consecutive year, we’ve reduced o

For the second consecutive year, we’ve reduced our hive numbers in central London (by 1/3rd in 2020) relocating bees to apiary sites in low hive density areas. Rather than fretting about the scarcity of food resources for London’s pollinators, we’ve been doing something about it. #sustainablebeekeeping #actionnotwords #positiveaction #whoswithme #

Enjoyed an exquisite, refined dinner @sollip_resta

Enjoyed an exquisite, refined dinner @sollip_restaurant (our local Korean/European fusion restaurant which opened in the week before lockdown). The flavour of each ingredient bursts through on their small plates, including our Bishop Stortford Waterside Honey in the Fig Leaf Creme Brûlée!

We wear our entrance blocks the “smiley way”,

We wear our entrance blocks the “smiley way”, with the entrance level on top. The reason is that, if a carpet of expired bees forms on the floor during winter, the bees can still exit and enter from that top entrance. The “frowny way” risks trapping healthy bees inside the hive.
#bermondseystreetbees #smileyway #frownyway #sustainablebeekeeping #hiveentrance #headsortails?

Words fail me about the devastation of our award-w

Words fail me about the devastation of our award-winning apiary at Gallions Reach by “travellers” during their fortnight of occupation. Here is what we found there this morning...

Postscript:

Thank you to all who have expressed their support and their sadness at this wanton destruction.

We’ve reassembled the brood boxes, righted the hives and replaced the broken equipment. We will let the remaining bees settle down and assess which colonies are viable in a few days’ time.

Here’s 103kg of our 2-star Great Taste Award Cus

Here’s 103kg of our 2-star Great Taste Award Custom House Honey delivered to @beecollectivelondon (where the bunting is always flying!) for a client. We’re proud to have been part of the crowdfunding of this volunteer-powered social enterprise, founded by ecologist Caroline Birchall. #sustainablebeekeeping #beecollective #pavlintheboss #carolinequeenbee #bermondseystreetbees #customhousehoney #twostars #103kg #honeydelivery #ecology

London leaning into the weekend. #towerbridge

London leaning into the weekend.
#towerbridge

Repost • @sarahwyndham.lewis . Wonderful feature

Repost • @sarahwyndham.lewis .
Wonderful feature by @gabykoppel on @bstreetbees and @honeysommelierlondon in the Jewish Chronicle’s Rosh Hashanah edition last weekend.
Honey has a profound role within Jewish culture, and the lives of countless other peoples through history - from the Mayans to the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks, Druids, Celts, worshippers of Mithras and ultimately both Islam and the Christian church.
.
@thejewishchronicle
#roshhashana #rawhoney #realhoney #festivalfood #wholefood #realfood #religiousceremony #foodofthegods

As Summer slips into Autumn, here’s a last look

As Summer slips into Autumn, here’s a last look at one of our blue-marked 2020 queens. (A dab of colour on the thorax does not harm the bee). Young, vigorous queen bees are key to successful colony development. For information only, white is the queen-marking colour for 2021. #sustainablebeekeeping #bluequeen #whitequeen #queenbreeding #autumnal #bermondseystreetbees #honeysommelierlondon #plantingforhoneybees #thorax

A 3-star rating in the @guildoffinefood Great Tast

A 3-star rating in the @guildoffinefood Great Taste Awards is a rarity (just 205 out of 12,777 entries this year, or 1.6%).

Today 3 of our honeys were awarded 3-stars!

Our range of raw, characterful English honeys consistently tops the ratings.

Check out our bermondseystreetbees.co.uk website...
#greattasteswardwinner #greattastewards #3stars #top1.6% #trinity #guildoffinefood #starquality #rawhoney #realhoney #bermondseystreethoney #royalalbertdockhoney #exmoorwildflowerhoney #wedogreattaste #chefshoney #baristahoney #restauranthoney #consistentwinners

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