Hollin Park Honey

17/03/2026

First warm, sunny day of the year so time to check the bees for the first time this year! Still early days, but so far so good.

27/02/2026

The last of the 2025 honey harvest has been collected today, which means I’m currently sold out.

The warm weather has brought the bees out, they’re finding the crocus pollen so Spring is finally arriving so the bees can start work on the 2026 harvest.

After last year’s drought and the insanely wet Winter, fingers crossed for a more normal Summer this year!

28/01/2026

Is it me or has January lasted forever?

We’re down to the last few jars of the 2025 honey harvest - if you’re running low you need to get in quick before it’s gone!

13/09/2025

My good lady wife found this oddity in the branches of the plum tree while out picking the fruit. It’s a small chunk of wild comb built on one of the branches.

My best guess is a swarm has paused here for a while before moving on.

We also still have the summer honey crop available, DM me if you’re interested.

30/08/2025

Some better bee news today.

The summer harvest is in!
I have more jars of honey in stock, please drop be a message if you like a jar.

£6 per jar, collection only from Leeds LS8.

29/08/2025

Yellow-legged (Asian) Hornet update.

Yorkshire beekeepers have just received an update that a nest of yellow-legged (Asian) hornets has been discovered just south of Malton in North Yorkshire. Most of the incursions into the UK to date have been around ports or easily linked to imports, so a nest being found 60ft up a lime tree in North Yorkshire is extremely bad news.

Hopefully you've seen some of the media coverage about this particular hornet. It's an invasive species that arrived in France in 2004 and has been steadily working its way across the continent. Being an imported species these hornets have no natural predators in Europe, so they spread unchecked and have an absolutely devastating impact on local insect populations. Although a lot of the coverage has been based around "saving the bees" these critters will eat pretty much anything and everything smaller than them; moths, butterflies, wasps, bees, all the things we need to pollinate our food crops.

BBKA have a series of resources on how to identify YLH here: https://www.bbka.org.uk/identify-report-asian-hornet, in particular how to tell them apart from common wasps and the mostly harmless native European hornet.

The National Bee Unit policy at the moment is one of trace and destroy, so if you see one of these nasties please get a picture of it (a picture is 100% needed to sift through the huge number of false-positive reports) and submit it through the 'Asian Hornet Watch' app, which is on all the usual app stores.

How to identify if the insect in front of you is a 'Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet' and details of how to report any sightings.

19/07/2025

Just reposting this.
There's still some of the Spring harvest of honey available, drop is a message if you'd like a jar.

Some good news, some bad news and some indifferent news.

First the good news - I have honey available!
Not a vast amount - the main harvest will be sometime around the August bank holiday weekend - but I have a small batch in jars and ready to go. This is Spring honey so it's quite a light and sweet honey.

Next the bad news. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for a little more for each jar, the price is now £6. Beekeeping isn't immune to the rise in prices, the cost of labels and jars in particular has gone up hugely along with everything else.

Lastly the indifferent news - I can now take credit card payments. Cash is still more than welcome, but I know people increasingly don't use cash.

If you want a jar then drop me a message, collection only from Leeds LS8.