Bristol Beekeeping Café buzzing to help new enthusiasts
A new café where customers can order bees or locally produced honey has opened.As well as coffee and cake, the Beekeepers Café in Redhill, Somerset, is selling all the equipment budding apiarists will need to manage their own hives - including the insects. The café is part of West Country Meadery, which has been producing honey for eight years. Bosses hope the venture will provide a "really good" launchpad to those hoping to try their hand at keeping bees.Owner Rod Jenkins said: "It's important to keep bees, especially for the environment, but it's also important that people do it properly. We don't want to spread diseases, so we teach people how to look after them properly."
West Country Meadery is the brainchild of husband and wife duo Rod and Tracey Jenkins.They started their journey when Rod bought Tracey her first hive for Christmas in 2017. She said the hobby "got a bit out of hand" and they now manage six apiaries across farmers fields, orchards and their own land. As well as their own produce, the café sells books on beekeeping, suits and gloves.
Rod and Tracey also want to give aspiring keepers the chance to get "hands-on" by offering experience vouchers.Between May and August, people can visit the café, get suited up and head to an apiary to lend a hand with inspections and 'hive smoking,' a practice used to keep bees calm.The café will then offer visitors the chance to buy their own bees and hive.
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