Ridgeway Bees

Passionate about all things honey and bee

#beehappyhoney #savethebees #beeinformed

Ridgeway Bees is a family business based in Wantage, Oxfordshire. We sell the bees surplus honey and our handmade beeswax and honey infused products.


Saving the bees is critical. Being a beekeeper, I am happy to collect swarms of honey bees from gardens in Wantage and the surrounding villages and towns throughout the Vale of the White Horse. 


Education - a beehive is a science class in a box. Our science and education programs build environmental awareness by teaching children and adults about the lives of bees, the dire consequences of bee population collapse, and how we can act positively for bees and their natural environment. For more information or to ask about booking me for a class session (child or adult) please drop me an email.


New for 2024, 

This year we concentrate on protecting the bees, safe bee removal from gardens, public places, buildings etc.

Exciting development projects continue with HMP and other corporates.

Various pop-up spots at Millets Farm throughout the spring and summer.

Continuing my education by supporting commercial beekeeping efforts with 800+ hives in Gloucester. 


07577659896 amy@ridgewaybees.co.uk
1 Tirrold Way, Wantage, Wantage, OX12 7DL, United Kingdom
Etsy Shop

Products and Services

Swarm Collection

Give me a call and I will try my hardest be with you the same day to collect your honey bees to safely rehome them in my apiary. 
There is no charge for honeybee swarm collection.
And if they produce some honey I will happily share a jar with you.

Honey

Honey will be for sale via our online shop, our Facebook shop and at Wantage Market. Signup to our newsletter or follow us on our social channels to find out as soon as the bees produce enough surplus honey for me to extract and sell.

Beeswax Products

Ridgeway Bee's Wrap is a new, eco-friendly and reusable food wrap. Now available to order via our online shop, our Etsy shop, our Facebook shop or via Facebook Messenger. Refresher bars are available meaning these wraps will last forever.
Honey and honeycomb are available seasonally.

Education

Education is one of our most important goals. Our science and education program can be tailored to schools for children or young adults, for adult groups or for cubs and scouts. If you would like me to talk to your group, just drop me an email and I will give you a call with my availability.
The Apiaries
The Honey
The Bees


Can you tell the difference between a honey bee, a wasp and a bumble bee?

Many people are unable to tell the difference between a honey bee, a bumble bee and a wasp, and most are unaware of the important role of these fascinating creatures.
The Honey Bee - our best friends. The honey bee is our main pollinator in early spring and can usually be seen with pollen pockets on their legs.
Honey bee with pollen pockets full of bright yellow pollen
The Bumblebee - relatively harmless if left to it. Bumbles are round and fluffy and usually the queens, the really big ones, can be seen in early spring. The males and worker bumbles are slightly smaller and are commonly seen throughout late spring and summer.
Bumbles nest in the ground and sometimes take up residence in bird boxes. 
The ideal scenario is leave them to nest and forage and they will move on after a couple of weeks.
If they really are proving a nuisance I can, in some instances come and collect bumble nests in bird boxes and re-home them for a small fee. 
First choice though is always to leave them alone.
Bumble bee in flight to demonstrate the difference in size compared to the smaller honey bee
The Wasp - not furry, multiple sting capability. 
The pest. 

Although wasps are actually pollinators they are widely regarded as pests.
They usually build their nests in sheds, garages and in the eaves of houses. 

You will need pest control to get rid of wasp nests. I can recommend a local pest control company I work closely with. They have a no kill policy for honeybees where ever possible so I am always happy to share their details.
Wasp

What honey bees do and how we can help them

Bees pollinate a third of everything we eat

Most bees are pollinators. They eat pollen and nectar from flowers. When the pollen sticks to their bodies, it gets transferred between the flowers they visit. This fertilises the plants in the process, allowing them to reproduce, and grow fruits and seeds. This process is called pollination. Insects, like bees, that transfer pollen between plants are known as pollinators.

84% of crops grown for consumption need bees to pollinate them!

Some crops, like raspberries, apples and pears, particularly need insect pollination to produce good yields of high quality fruit. Honey bees are the only bee capable of large scale natural pollination in early spring.

Imagine how different our beautiful landscape would look

If pollinators went into steep decline, our countryside would be a less beautiful place as

they are essential for biodiversity and our wider environment. They maintain the diversity of wild flowers and support healthy ecosystems, particularly by helping plants to produce fruits and seeds which birds and other animals rely on. 

Plant bee friendly flowers in your garden

Aim for a good variety of pollen and nectar rich flowers that have different flower shapes and a range of flowering periods from early spring to late summer and even throughout the winter if you can.

Choose winter and early spring flowering trees such as apple, wild cherry, willow and hazel. 

There are lots of fabulous flower bomb making videos on YouTube. We always have fun making them as a key part of our education programmes.


There is always so much more you can do...

Make a bee watering station - add a little sugar to the water to help tired bees get back on their feet. Add marbles or pebbles to allow the bees to land on safely without drowning in an open expance of water.


Dont use pesticides - Common insecticides containing neonicotinoids (thiacloprid and acetamiprid) kill bees! They are still approved for home and garden use and are available today at most garden centres and DIY shops. Read the label and please avoid using them.


Make a bee house - Create insect houses in your garden to provide nesting sites for solitary bees and insects. Different bee species require different habitats.

2022 looks like this:

  • Charity - again, charity work is one of the key focuses for 2022. I will be working with Anna and her team at Maymessy. Growing the apiary to two hives which I will continue to manage, an exciting project.
  • Expansion - 8 new hives with 5 solid colonies ready for splitting in early Mays at the new South apiary on Manor Road.
  • The Willows - Education centre for beekeeping experience afternoons throughout the summer.
  • The Greyhound - Letcomb Regis - supplying Chef Martin with honey for his Ridgeway Bees Honey Inspired dessert.
  • Commercial - continuing the journey of learning commercial beekeeping with EasyBee Products in Cheltenham with over 800 hives to manage.
  • Farmers markets -
  • Wantage Artisan Markets - follow @wantagemarkets on Facebook for the dates

A little bit about me

A girl who keeps bees

In early 2019 I took a beekeeping course in Wantage run by the local Bee Keeping Association and I have been hooked ever since. 
Capturing six swarms and successfully attracting a wild colony in 2019 meant a roller coaster of trial and error in the apiary, learning on the job and hours and hours and hours of reading, You Tubing and research.
The 2020 season was a roller coaster of a ride with Covid-19 hitting the UK and lockdown making travelling to and from the apiaries few and far between. That said, we managed to branch out and ended 2020 with over 20 strong hives across several apiaries, attended the Wantage Christmas markets with lots of yummy honey and beeswax goods, and even opened a small apiary in Penzance in Cornwall. Heather honey incoming - mmmmm!
I enter 2022 season brimming with new ideas, some of which will work and I am sure some will not, but we've got to give them a go to find out!!
I am a natural beekeeper. I don't clip the wings of the Queen bees and leave the bees to get on with it as much as possible. I do not pull honey from a swarm in the first year as I believe they need to be given the best chance of survival that I can possibly give them.
We work as a team. My husband Paul does all the heavy lifting and our kids Harry (14) and Evie (12) love working the bees with me. 
And best of all, we all adore the taste of honey on our breakfast cereal every morning!

#beeconnected

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Ridgeway Bees Blog

by Amy Belcher 12 Nov, 2020
Sugar, ah honey honey... You are my candy girl... And you've got me wanting you... Honey, ah sugar sugar... You are my candy girl... And you've got me wanting you... The bees are natures finest candy girls but why does some honey taste and look different? In my humble opinion, good raw honey is an altogether different product from the "Grade A Amber" glass jar varieties that line the supermarket shelves. I have spent a lot of time looking at the labels of jars in Waitrose, Sainsburys, Tescos and Aldi. Almost every brand of supermarket honey sold is a blend, accumulated from thousands of colonies, then boiled down until all its dynamic flavours are distilled to produce a standard colour and tasting product. But the raw stuff, harvested at exactly the right time in the season and without one bit of heat? That honey is liquid gold. Honey straight from a hive is full of unique flavours based on its location and the season. With a little background information all of these variations can be appreciated with the same respect and admiration as the tasting of wine. Generally the type and number of flowers where bees collect nectar from determine honey colour, aroma, taste and nutrient content of the honey. Therefore honey colour depends on the vegetation (flowers) of the area where nectar is collected and the season in which it is foraged. There are various honey colours ranging from water-white to deep brown or dark amber all the way to black honey produced. For example in early spring our bees forage on clover, early fruit bearing trees like pear, apple and cherry blossom, and rape seed so the honey this flora and fauna produces is light in colour and sweet in taste. Throughout the summer and into early autumn sunflowers are coming into season which produce a darker, richer tasting honey. The muddle of hedgerow and meadow flowers like poppies and such like produce a lovely balance of light and dark nectar producing a lovely amber honey which has a light floral hint in flavour. You can't beat raw, unpasteurised honey straight from the hive. I've sold out in 2020 but please support your local bee keeper. Find your nearest by visiting you local produce farm shops, farmers markets or you can visit The Vale and Downland beekeepers website for a list of local bee keepers who have honey for sale. Happy honey tasting! From Amy and the bees at Ridgeway Bees.
Raw unpasteurized honey and honeycomb
by Amy Belcher 21 Oct, 2020
A blog about the health benefits of raw honey and the risks for babies under 12 months old
Three types of bee - female queen, female worker bees and male drones
by Amy Belcher 13 Oct, 2020
Three types of bee - female queen, female worker bees and male drones
by Amy Belcher 29 Sept, 2020
Lots of hives mean lots of bees and with any luck that means of surplus honey! I don't remove honey unless the bees have made themselves more than enough for winter stores, and if they have then they don't seem to mind sharing the rest with me. Lots of honey means lots of waste wax capping's so once melted down, sieved and cleaned this wax can be used to make a variety of natural beeswax products. During winter 2020 I will be making 100% natural, reusable food wraps by combining some of the wax with other natural products like jojoba oil for its antibacterial properties, pine resin for its "stickiness" and coconut oil for its pliability. We will be adding a full range of balm and whipped body butter products to this range so watch this space. Check out the new Etsy store for details. If you're local I can delivery FOC or you can collect from the workshop on Manor Road or my home in Tirrold Way. #beeswaxwraps #beeswax #sustainableliving #beeswaxwrap #zerowaste #ecofriendly #ecowarrior #plasticfree #handmade #bees #zerowastehome #foodwraps #zerowastemovement #waxwraps #sustainablefoodstorage #plasticfreeliving #zerowastelifestyle #savethebees #reusable #beeswaxfoodwraps #beesofinstagram #ecofriendlyproducts #honeybees #zerowasteliving #zerowastekit #supportlocal #oxfordshirebusiness #smallbusiness #ridgewaybees #ridgewaybeeswraps #wantagebusiness #zerowastegift #theridgewaywantage

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