OUR QUEEN BEE: A MARK OF TRUST
You can’t really be a beekeeper and not think about the world around you. Looking at the world through a bee's eyes means you notice the weather changing: you see the seasons out of kilter with our flora and fauna’s internal clocks that have developed over millennia to work in harmony.
Our bees, flora, fauna and us are finding it hard to adjust quickly enough to the world’s changing climate.
So from the start doing our best to be eco-friendly has been important to Hive & Keeper, as has being honest and trustworthy: we promise no corporate green-washing, no big-ticket headline grabbing gestures, just doing things as well, and as thoughtfully, as we can.
People who know me would describe me as very easy-going and tolerant: until I’m not. Once irritated I remain irritated, and one of my big bugbears is labelling that misleads people. An example would be ‘Made in Britain’: often the product just had finishing touches added in the UK.
Honey labelling is dreadful too! On the front the honey will tell you it’s ‘Blossom honey’ which conjures up images of fruit trees and the start of spring in the UK. Read the smallprint and there’s a high chance it will say ‘sourced from EU and non-EU countries’ which mean that honeys a combination of honeys imported from all over the world. It will have come to the UK for bottling by container ship in huge drums and over thousands and thousands of miles.
We always tell you where our honeys are from, down to the nearest village and we source EVERYTHING from within the UK.
The world of labelling and use of 'Made in Britain' often feels misleading, even dishonest. Instead we should know exactly where, and how, things are made and sourced so we can make our own informed decison before buying.
So we’ve trademarked our British Queen Bee, and wherever you see her you’ll know that what you’re buying has been fully sourced from British people and businesses that care about the environment and can show what they’re doing to reduce their impact: no grand-standing or empty marketing speak, just good old fashioned honesty and action as they do their bit to tread more lightly on the planet.
We guarantee our British Queen Bee will only ever be seen on things produced in the UK by people we trust.