Paul’s Farm Honeybees

Remember, you can buy our honey at Paul's Farm Pumpkins today and next weekend! If you want to have a chat then I’ll be up at the pumpkin field all day! See you there! 🎃 🐝

New stock of spring honey in stock exclusively at Pauls Farm Shop! Summer crop should be on the way in a couple of weeks if that’s more to your liking 🍯

4 hives and counting… 🐝 not often I have a helping hand at the apiary so I utilised the help by getting them to take a picture of me with my bees 📸

Unfortunately with the fluctuating winter temperatures I lost my autumn nuc 😞 but heyho that’s beekeeping.

Nonetheless, yesterday, my good friend and I went to pick up a nuc to replenish my lost nuc and to expand Abbie’s colonies 🙌🏼 onwards and upwards 🐝

If anyone ever wondered what you can fit in a Vauxhall Mokka, the answer is two national hives, two national nucs, four supers, two feeders, two hive stands, two beekeepers and everything else I had in my car that day that I had to tuck in every nook and cranny. Quite impressive, even if Abbie didn’t think we’d fit it all in 😂

Here’s to spring and soon some honey! 🍯
Happy beekeeping!

I took advantage of a bit of Lancashire sun and had a check of the girls fondant levels. I’ve been otherwise distracted so I’ve not checked in with them for 3 weeks. Nonetheless, all is well in the hives and I’m glad that the nuc has finally clustered down! Bring on spring!

Keep an eye out for me out and about wearing the Paul’s Farm Honeybees Logo with thanks to Embroidery Unit! 👕Fantastic local company with fast turnaround times and amazing finishes! They even got my little bee in the O on honey.
Also we’ve been spotted, the last of our honey is exclusively in Pauls Farm Shop! 🍯 Get it while stocks last 💨

We had a excellent first weekend down at the Paul's Farm Pumpkins! Thank you to everyone who has shown interest, especially those who are hoping to be return customers! Keep your eyes on this page for all updates!
If you don’t manage to grab a jar, don’t worry, honey will be on sale again next weekend again between 10am-4pm (subject to availability).
See you there!

It’s typical of me to be last minute! Labelling at half past midnight 🥱
See you all soon at Paul's Farm Pumpkins for the opening day! 🍯

All the preparation has been going on down at the farm ready for the opening weekend! Find us at the Spooky Shop! Remember it’s our first time selling our honey to the public, so this will be your first and last chance to get it because it will sell out! The weather doesn’t look amazing for the weekend but there will still be plenty of hot food, drinks, sweets and of course honey! Did I mention that there’s also lots of pumpkins! They’re amazing quality this year with big ones, small ones, long ones, white ones, so much choice! See you there!

🐝 Nuc Update! 🐝
It’s been almost 3 weeks since I split hive numero uno on the 21st September and if I’m being honest, it all started a bit sketchy 😱 on my 1 week inspection after installing the queen it was apparent that the bees from hive one hadn’t done their job. Although the attendants that arrived with the queen ate themselves to death to try and get the queen out of the queen cage, the outside bees barely sniffed at the fondant (see the last photo). Thankfully, the queen was still alive! 🙌🏼 although the hive had obviously accepted her, they still didn’t want to free her 😂 Nonetheless, I released her myself and she ran straight down into the frames and got to work 💪🏽 a week and a half later I’ve inspected again and I’m glad to say that she’s healthy and laying very well. The colony are building stores well for winter, with the help of some sugar syrup, leaving me confident for the winter. If a hive looked this full in spring then you’d be putting it into a full sized hive, but there’s no need to rush. Roll on spring 2023 🌸

Paul’s Farm Honeybees honey is going to be on sale in the ‘spooky shop’ at Paul's Farm Pumpkins patch! You can’t get more local than at the source itself.
We’ve just jarred our last batch of summer honey, which contains the nectar of the pumpkins you’ll pick!
Our honey is unfiltered meaning it contains small amounts of pollen. This is what helps you build up your immunity to the local pollen!
Whilst you’re down, you can meet the beekeeper and ask any questions you like 🙋🏼‍♂️
This is the first and last chance to be able to grab a jar this year, but don’t worry, we’re expanding; so you should be able to see us in Pauls Farm Shop in the new year!

And then there were two! Well, one and a half.
Today I introduced a new queen from to the nuc which I split on Monday. They were very interested in her from the second she came out of the envelope. Fingers crossed they accept her! I’ll give them a week to settle in; then I’ll either have a laying queen, or a deceased one… hopefully the former 😂 if anyone is still needing a last minute queen then BS Honeybees is the place to go. Not to mention that their poly nucs are excellent! They can be used as a 6 frame nuc or split down the middle into a two way mating nuc! Easy feeding system included. I’ll definitely be purchasing from them again ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I decided, rather reluctantly today to flail off the apiary. The overgrowth of ferns, thistles, bindweed and other wild growth was taking over and I fear that leaving it any longer, certainly until spring would cause more problems that good. Don’t get me wrong, the shelter is excellent! But I’m fully aware of how all the overgrowth can harbour pests and mice which will cause issues, especially overwinter. This should give me a fresh start overwinter and maybe some time to get some grass or a nectar mix down just to give the weeds something to compete with.

Nonetheless this had allowed me to put some flags down. Now I’ve established my love for beekeeping and subsequently made the decision to stick at it and expand fast, I’ve laid five. So now I can move my hive off of the pallets and onto some blocks to keep the mice away (hive stand pending).

With expanding in mind I have a nuc in the barn which I just need to get a second coat of paint on so I can split the hive on Monday. Ten a queen arriving on Wednesday to introduce to them. All going well and a successful overwintering will put me to two. Which will hopefully allow me to do another early spring split.

The supers came off at the start of the week and the honey is in the settling tank ready for jarring. 2 decent hauls off of a may nuc! Not bad going if you ask me.

Roll on spring to do it all again 💪🏽

All the colours the bees brought home from June to September! 🌈 The supers came off today and the Apiguard went on. Apiguard is a natural treatment to control varroa mite, a parasite to honeybees 🐜 I have a new queen arriving in the coming weeks to do a late split with. All part of my expansion process. The sooner we get to spring again the better! I’m sure when I’ve got a few more colonies I’ll be thankful for the break. But I feel like I’m just getting started! There’s still more to come for me and Paul’s Farm Honeybees! Watch this space 💪🏽

Here it is. My first batch! 45 jars of my first lot of liquid gold. Never did I think that I’d get a harvest this year considering I full hived my nuc in May. But nonetheless here we are. With the way things are going it looks like I may get another couple of supers off in the coming weeks with the summer flow and it looks like I’ll need it. Without really advertising the honey has become well in demand. Not including the mandatory gifts to family which feels like a must from your first batch. I’m super excited to continue this journey and it’s motivated me ten fold to expand. Watch this space! A massive shout out to for her help and support through my journey as well as lending me some extraction equipment to get me started 🐝

Hi there! I decided that it’s time for me to start a page to follow my progress as I become OBSESSED with beekeeping, as well as keep you all updated on available products!
First of all, a little bit about me. I’m Daniel, a farmer and fabricator/engineer at Paul’s Farm in Leyland. This year I had, as my Mrs would say, a quarter life crisis; finding myself buying a nucleus colony and hive 🤦🏼‍♂️ and all I can say is, I love it! This new hobby works perfectly beside our farming season, and with plenty of forage at the farm and surrounding areas, there’s an excess of nectar for the bees. We’ve even started incorporating nectar mixes into our environmental schemes on the farm!
In the weeks leading up to my ‘quarter life crisis’ I did weeks of research! Anyway, my nuc arrived on the 17th of May and I’ve learned SO much on my journey. It’s one thing learning the theory, it’s another thing having a box of live bees in front of you when you’ve never touched a hive before! Nonetheless I’ve been stung more times than I can count (and through this learned that I don’t go into anaphylaxis), I’ve marked my queen by myself and as a result of the long flow at the farm, I’ve been lucky enough to take some honey home! Which I extracted tonight! Jarring and labelling pending!

Sorry for the extra long post, I’ve tried to condense three months into a snapshot. I hope you all enjoy watching my journey as much as I’m enjoying experiencing it!

Dan
Paul’s Farm Honeybees