~A STORY FROM AND BY THE ELECTRIC DAISY FARM~

We are so enchanted by flowers it’s easy to forget they don’t give a fig what we think about them, because the audience they are really trying to please isn’t human.

The Electric Daisy Farm grows seasonal British flowers on their flower farm in Somerset, UK. At Electric Daisy Flower Farm we are completely chemical free and pride ourselves on our ethical harvests. The only air miles come from the pollinating insects and wildlife who share the land with us.

Matt Somerville, founder of Bee Kind Hives is working with Electric Daisy Farm to help boost the bee population on their flower farm. Matt buzzes all around the UK setting up hives less like those square boxes we often see, and more like homes that bees actually like.“We need to look at how bees live in the wild rather than imposing our human perspective on them,” he says. He creates hives by hollowing out sections of tree log, leaving cylinders with walls about two inches thick, which is great for insulation. “Conventional beekeepers’ hives have much thinner walls, so the bees have to expend a lot more energy ‘fanning’ their wings to keep warm in winter.”

Beekeepers usually harvest honey and replace it with sugar water to keep the bees fed during the lean winter months, but as Matt says, “That’s like giving them junk food. It has none of the minerals, nutrients and antibacterial qualities of honey, which is far more complex than just sugar.” Matt’s advice is, if you want to keep bees, do it more for their own sake rather than to harvest their honey.

To read more of the electric daisy farm journal

Bee-Centred Beekeeping

Bee-centred beekeeping is an approach guided by the biology and nature of the honeybee. The bee-centred method is non-intrusive, low intensity and minimal stress for bees and beekeeper.

 For information about tree apiculture

Learn what a straw hackle is, and how to make one, for a log hive or skep.