The Pen*stone Honey Company

13/09/2026

Here’s a BIG thank you to everyone who supported us at Pen*stone Agricultural Show yesterday, lots of honey was tasted, debated and bought. Special thank yous go to my worker bee Georgina Court and artistic director Queen Bee Alison Lowe who made the stall look so great, worked tirelessly all day helping me set up, take down and made some wonderful beeswax candles.
My bees won first prize for their Heather honey, and second places for medium colour Wortley honey, soft set Cawthorne honey, beeswax candles and a photo of a larva in a queen cell.
It was good to have a chat with friendly rivals Mark from DunnyBees , Ollie at Herd & Hive and Karl from Holme Valley Honey, I hope they all had a good day.
Politics never tasted so sweet as Marie Tidball MP had time to taste some proper local honey, as did Mayor Liam Hardcastle.
Thank you also to the returning customers, new customers and old friends who stopped to say hello, and to the organisers and volunteers who make this show so special.
Lily from Pen*stone FM did a quick interview with me, I hope she had a good day too.
Finally, local bees also visited to take back some honey, you are most welcome!

12/09/2026

Look out for the bee flag! We are at the Pen*stone Agricultural Show come and say hello, taste some honey!

09/09/2026

Are you going to the Pen*stone Agricultural Show on Saturday 12th September?
Please come and visit us, say hello, chat about bees and taste our range of local honeys. We will be near the giant tortoises, clowns and a bar in the middle field. Must dash, lots to prepare!🐝🍯😉

31/08/2026

A lovely afternoon at Castle Inn Bolsterstone with great music, wonderful food and well kept delicious real ales. Many thanks to Lady Laura and Duchess Hannah for the invite and hospitality, I’m so pleased that this wonderful pub is my Local!

31/08/2026

Honey tasting at Castle Inn Bolsterstone today, Bank Holiday BBQ and music!
Come and taste some honey and wash it down with excellent ales!

21/08/2026

The worker bees are busy bringing in late summer pollen as protein feed for the young larvae to grow into big strong bees for the winter.
Triggered by shorter days and cooler weather the bees switch from making short lived summer foragers to winter bees that can last several months until next spring. They are physiologically different to summer bees, having more body fat to store protein and nutrients, and a higher level of the protein vitellogenin which gives increased immunity and health to last through the long winter.
A good supply of pollen is essential for this process.
We still don’t fully understand how they do this, amazing creatures adapted to their environment. 🐝🐝🐝

11/08/2026

It’s not often you see a queen bee laying an egg. Usually they are laid at the bottom of a hexagonal cell on the wax comb. It’s little, white and like a tiny grain of rice.
This is a 2026 queen that I picked up to mark with this year’s colour, white paint. She went into a feint, a tactic some queen bees do to play dead when stressed. I marked her anyway and waited for her to come round. The first signs of life were to lay an egg!
I put her back in the hive where her attendants groomed her and prodded her to revive her.
Update 30th August: Queen is alive and well and laying more eggs in the right places.

04/08/2026

I’m considering a novel business idea. Any takers? 😂

30/07/2026

Some days don’t go as you expect. The paint I use to mark queens has flooded my favourite pen knife, a floor on a hive has multiple entrances either from mice and or wasps, and most surprising of all was finding a wasp and a bee sleeping next to each other on a tea towel in my extraction room late at night. They had been flying around confused by the ceiling lights as I spun honey until finally settling together and resting for the night.
Just another day of beekeeping!

26/07/2026