There's a particular smell that drifts through a Hadley Wood garden in late June — the slightly drunken, honeyed sweetness of the lime trees in full flower, with bees tumbling out of the canopy looking faintly tipsy (lime nectar really can ferment and intoxicate them, which is either adorable or a serious workplace safety issue depending on your perspective). For a few short weeks it's been an all-you-can-eat buffet up there: limes along the avenues, bramble scrambling throug

It's the height of summer. You've cranked the fan up to maximum, you're living on ice lollies, and you've seriously considered moving into the freezer section of Waitrose. The dog has melted. The cat hasn't moved since Tuesday. And yet, inside your hive, approximately 50,000 tiny engineers are running a climate control operation so precise, so elegantly coordinated, it would make a Dyson engineer put down their tools and quietly weep into their oat milk. Honeybees maintain th

It happens every year, right around the time you'd expect things to be in full glorious swing. The garden is green, the sun is (occasionally, this being England) shining, and you'd think our bees would be absolutely beside themselves with excitement. Instead, if you lean in close to our hives here on Camlet Way and really pay attention, you might notice something subtle but extraordinary: the colony is pulling back. The queen has slowed down. Fewer eggs. Fewer larvae. A quiet

192kg of pure spring wildflower honey, a record haul, the hottest day of the year, and a barn full of brilliant friends. Here's how our first harvest of 2026 went from hive to bucket.

When you think of a beehive, honey is probably the first thing that springs to mind. But there's another incredible product quietly being made inside every hive — beeswax. It's the unsung hero of the honeybee world, and here at Hadley Wood Honey, we think it deserves its moment in the spotlight! 🌟 So... What Actually Is Beeswax? Beeswax is a natural wax produced by worker honeybees (all female, naturally — the boys don't pull their weight in this department!). Worker bees ha

Every spring and early summer, something rather magical can happen in gardens, hedgerows, and even the occasional wheelie bin around Hadley Wood — a honey bee swarm arrives. At first glance, it can look a little alarming. Thousands of bees hanging together in a buzzing cloud? Understandably, it’s not everyone’s idea of a relaxing afternoon in the garden. But here’s the good news: bee swarms are usually at their calmest and most peaceful during this stage. So… what exactly is

There’s a particular kind of excitement that only beekeepers (and very patient honey lovers) truly understand—the moment when the first honey of the season is almost ready. And we’re delighted to say… we’re nearly there. After a long winter and a slow but hopeful start to spring, our bees have been hard at work taking advantage of the early blooms. The hives are humming, the frames are filling, and if all goes to plan, the first harvest of the 2026 honey crop is just around t

If you’ve ever peeked inside a beehive (or watched a documentary while eating toast with honey), you might have noticed some odd-looking structures dangling from the comb—like tiny peanuts glued to the surface. These are queen cells and they’re where the magic—and monarchy—happens in the world of the honey bee. Let’s unpack the buzz around these royal nurseries. 🥜 What Exactly Is a Queen Cell? Queen cells are specialized wax structures built by worker bees to raise a new que

Image taken on 12.04.2026 of a drone bee emerging from it's cell with Varroa Destructor Mite clinging to it The Varroa Mite in the UK – A Tiny Pest with a Big Impact on Hadley Wood Honey If you keep bees in the UK, there’s one name you’ll hear again and again: Varroa destructor . It might be tiny, but this parasitic mite has had a huge impact on beekeeping since it arrived here in the early 1990s. For small, local producers like Hadley Wood Honey, managing varroa isn’t just p

A Tiny Door Opens: One Bee’s First Day on the Job 🐝 Deep inside the warm, humming heart of the hive, something remarkable is happening. In a single wax cell—one of thousands in a perfectly hexagonal honeycomb—a worker honey bee is about to make her grand entrance into the world. It’s not glamorous. There’s no red carpet. Just a determined little insect… and a wall of wax that needs chewing through. Welcome to day one. Breaking Out (Literally) Our bee begins her life as an ad