Staff at a country estate in the Lake District have taken to beekeeping in a drive to help nurture its surrounding woodlands and wildflowers.
Wild Boar Estate near Windermere is now home to three burgeoning beehives which are allowing the rural estate venue to produce its own honey for guests to enjoy at breakfast or purchase to take home as a tasty memento of their stay.
The beehives have been carefully stationed in the estate’s private woodlands to give the bees the best chance to flourish on the its 72 acres of rural land.
At the peak of summer, each beehive will contain up to 60,000 bees committed to the welfare of their queen and the colony as a whole. Wild Boar Estate gives the bees acres of high quality rural landscape in which to roam and forage, with good sources for a continual supply of food and water throughout the spring, summer and autumn months.
The busiest time for the budding beekeeping team is late spring and into the early summer when they are routinely checking on the hives and the welfare of the bees. This is important to prevent swarming, to monitor their health and to ensure there is enough space for them to store their honey. In the winter, the team will simply need to keep a check on the hives to ensure the bees have enough stored food and remain healthy.
General manager of Wild Boar Estate Adam Bujok says:
“This is a wonderful project to get involved in and a chance for us to give nature and sustainability a helping hand. Our seasonal countryside cycles and natural rhythms would be broken without the humble worker bees. As major pollinators, we simply couldn’t live without them."
“So it’s fantastic for us to see them buzzing around from flower to flower and meandering through our woodland glades and meadows. Then there’s the added benefit of harvesting their honey here on site for our guests to enjoy. We are even planning to use the honey in the microbrewery for the production of small batches of mead which visitors no doubt will be keen to sample.”
English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues has been working with experienced apiarist Jackie Kerr to install the hives and teach members of the Wild Boar Estate team the basics of beekeeping.
Jackie adds: “It’s been a pleasure to be involved in setting up the Wild Boar Estate apiary which continues to flourish and grow."
“With last year’s very wet weather, it was difficult for bees to gather nectar and many colonies languished until late summer. But the spring dry spell has given the season a real kick-start and the beautiful Wild Boar woodlands are now alive with some very busy bees."
“The estate team’s enthusiasm and commitment to protecting pollinators is both inspiring and wonderful to see.”
With its own open kitchen grill restaurant, on-site smokehouse and microbrewery, Wild Boar Estate hosts a range of fun outdoor activities and adventures in its extensive surrounding grounds. For further information, visit here.
