Bees at Surrey Docks Farm

Honey bees at Surrey Docks farm

The Farm has it’s own apiary with five bee hives which is set-up in the orchard. We have a beekeeper who attends on an adhoc basis and is responsible for hive maintenance.

Beekeeper

Danyal Conn started keeping bees in 2010. An initial fascination with bees soon became and obsession which then went on to include social insects, pollinating insects and eventually all insects. Over the years he has taught parts of the introductory beekeeping course and practical beekeeping training and mentoring for his local beekeepers associations. In 2016 he started working in a bee research lab at Queen Mary University of London and since 2019 he has been involved in maintaining the hives at Surrey Docks Farm.

Bees all year round

Our bees are in residence all year round. In the summer months they are out and about foraging for pollen, nectar and water. In the winter months they huddle together in their hive to keep warm and eat they honey they collected in the summer.

Surrey Docks Farm bees can be seen actively flying about during the warmer months between April and September. They can navigate very well and can fly up to three miles away from the farm. That’s way across the Thames, down to Greenwich or over to London Bridge. If you see them out and about remember to say hi!

We sell any excess honey we have and harvest this in September time. Our honey is very popular and often sells out quickly. Please ask in the farm shop at the end of August to find out if we’ll have any on sale that Autumn.

We do from time to time offer Beekeeping Taster sessions. These take place during the summer months and are for people who are interested in beekeeping and who would like to know a little more. The sessions are generally run on weekend afternoon/evenings. The taster sessions start with the workings of a beehive and how bees make honey. We then get into our beekeepers suits and take a look in the hive and meet the bees.