WINNER - Deliciously Yorkshire Taste Awards

WINNER - Harrogate Flower Show

60,000 worker bees in the summer

15,000 in the winter

Chaperoned by lady worker bees the virgin Queen makes a maiden flight to a drone zone and will mate in flight with up to 15 drones who immediately die. She flies back to the apiary never to mate again or leave the hive except in a swarm.

Only one Queen per colony and she lives for 5 years max, workers completely wear their wings out in 45 days

Drones last up to 3 months

Worker bees can fly out up to 3 miles and fly in black and white, navigate with 5 eyes and their ultra sensitive antenna functions include light, electric fields, smell, vibration, sound, feel, temperature and many other things.

The Queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day.

From egg to emerging as fully functional bees - Queen 16 days, workers 21 days, drones 24 days

I am the Apiarist, Martyn Duffield, and I simply won’t adulterate my bees honey, I don’t have to, and in the honour of my Uncle Russel.

Proudly I am very protective of my bees Honey and Harewood Honey brand, I am horrified by the extent of UK fraud and lack of testing.

Test: Hold a jar up to the light and compare to Harewood Honey, then taste both.

Sadly, some UK hobbyist and commercial bee keepers significantly increase their yield with blends of EU and Non Eu (Chinese) honey and corn syrup with brazen claims of purity. You can readily buy this very cheaply almost anywhere: I simply will not do this! and my yield is comparatively small.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/uk-honey-fails-authenticity-tests-alQ3x2z6Xk7a

39,000 tons of honey are imported to the UK annually from China

12,000 tons of honey imported from the EU

1,500 tons of Manuka honey are exported from New Zealand - 11,000 tons are sold worldwide (that we know of)

Rowse are reportedly the largest importer of honey in the UK