Ben's Berkshire Bees

10/04/2026

We were delighted to win the Best Green Business in the Newbury Weekly News Business Awards!

Congratulations to Ben's Berkshire Bees , winner of the Best Green Business award at the Newbury Best in Business Awards ⭐🏆🎉

09/04/2026

Where to find us in April!

🍯12th April - Shaw House Love Local Market - and what could be better to love locally than our honey! 11am-3pm

🍯18th April - Reading Farmers’ Market 8am - 12pm.

🍯26th April - Newbury Artisan Market 10am - 4pm (hopefully we will be able to take our bees on their first outing of the year!)

As the beekeeping season gets going, and also as Apis Accounting Limited is getting busier - I will reducing my attendance at Thatcham Market to every other week or so. We post on here when we will be there. If you need honey when aren't down there you can order online and pick up from Dunstan Park.

Tomorrow we will find out whether we have won the Best Green Business in the Newbury Weekly News Business Awards!

08/04/2026

What a beautiful day, especially with a bit of warmth into the evening. The bees have been loving it which means I've been a busy beekeeper adding space to rapidly expanding colonies. One of the colonies I'm tracking put on 3.5kg today along.

This week I'm also going to start raising queens bees for with the Ben's Berkshire Bees sister company Sipa Honey Bees.

06/04/2026

At last a bit of sunny weather and thes ar loving it!

03/04/2026

Tomorrow we'll be at Chieveley village hall from 10 to 12:30, and Sunday I'll be at the Newvury Farmers market.

It is such a busy time of year as the bees start to boom! Around tge markets I'll out giving bees moee space to expand and hrloing run the Newbury Beekeepers Association Apiary.

02/04/2026

Honey Bee Swarms

By the end of April will be into the 2026 Honey Bee Swarming season for the next few months. We have already had one reported swarm - super early this year.

Honey Bees swarm when the colony reaches a size where it thinks it can reproduce - half the bees leave with the existing Queen bee to find somewhere else to live, the remaining ones produce a new queen.

Bees generally at the most gentle when they are swarming they are focused on getting to a new home!

If you come across a swarm not need to panic. If you're in West Berkshire you can contact us via our website to report it. You just need to add a location. photos/video and some contact details and I will get in touch. Link in the comments.

We rescue swarms for free as a public service in West Berkshire.

31/03/2026

A little bit of warmth makes such a difference for the bees. Today it crossed 15 degrees for the first in a few weeks, and now that there is forage available, the colony increased the weight of the hive by 5% - in a single afternoon

29/03/2026

27/03/2026

I've got a super busy beekeeping weekend coming up. On Sunday I'll be in the market place the Newbury Artisan Market. We are in our usual sport outside Natwest. I'm pretty excited that we will be opposite the Orcadian Fudge Company who produce some of the best Fudge around! If you can't make this weekend for your honey top up we will be back in the Market Place on Easter Sunday for the Newbury Farmers' Market .

Tomorrow I'm out with the bees. We will be moving some colonies across West Berkshire for Pollination and adding space for colonies to expand, and generally getting ready for raising queens my the middle of April with Sipa Honey Bees.

20/03/2026

Tomorrow we will at the Reading Farmers’ Market. This is always a wonderful market with lots of different food and drink that you ca buy straight from the producer!

We'll be there from 8:15 to 12:00.

18/03/2026

Wow - that's a new record for us. It is only the 18th March and we have had the first swarm report via our website. They don't seem to have settled so we couldn't pick them up but definitely honey bees!

Normally we wouldn't expect swarms until mid April but if you come across one you can report them on our website.

If you find a swarm in West Berkshire contact us to collect it at no charge.