Cariad Honey

20/05/2026

Naw well done Oliver for representing Cariad Honey in class today, giving a presentation on bees for World Bee Day! Super proud 🐝 🐝 🐝

11/05/2026

Thank you to my uncle and aunt for kindly looking after us with this swarm in their garden today ;) it will be very good to be back. 🐝 🐝 🐝

11/05/2026

We have some exciting news coming up very shortly, however for now, I would like to say a big thank you to Carla, our land owner whom allows us to use her farm at Tir Tawel. Carla and her team do a lot of work with the community and wellbeing support. She has an exciting opportunity for kids coming up which is detailed in her post. If you could, could you please visit her page and give it a follow as she has lots of exciting activities coming up. 🐝 🐔 🐷 🐴

A "Farm Life" experience for the home ed community.

We have had an amazing response - 3 spaces left!
Please reach out to us to register your interest 🙏

28/04/2026

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 SWARM SEASON 26 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

As always every year we like to let the public know a few facts about swarms. A swarm is large cluster of bees protecting a queen and looking for somewhere to make a new home. Unfortunately this can be somewhere you don’t want, such as chimneys, cavities and anything outdoors. They are usually very harmless, gorged full on honey and feeling very full. Ready to store in the new hive.

Please consider us when making calls as we are in dyer need of honeybees after two consecutive brutal seasons.

1) Do call or message us, if we are not available there is an abundance of beekeepers that may help. Some charge but most do this for free, just like us. Please consider us as we have lost all our hives and need to restart after mild winters.

2) Don’t panic! They are fascinating to watch but if you are or could be allergic, best not to get too close.

3) Don’t spray water, throw stones or cause distress to the large mesmerising cluster.

4) Remember local authorities can’t help as they are protected.

5) Always be polite to the beekeepers, this is usually voluntary.

6) Remember honeybees are protected!

Bee safe, bee responsible and bee kind!

Stu, Amy and the bees 🐝

28/01/2026

So for a little while, during my quietness and absence on Facebook. I have been pondering with the idea of writing a children’s book about becoming a beekeeper and obviously the importance of bees. The intention is for it to be solely educational. I was inspired by my third son Oliver. His courage and confidence as well as wilfulness to learn about bees. Becoming a beekeeper at the age of 5 was a pretty daunting and daring task for myself, Amy and grandfather.

I still remember my first time and the horrors I felt 😝(believe it or not, I had a fear of bees). Oliver on the hand embraced it and loves it. The recent news of losing the last colony caused him great upset and has pushed me to finish this side project. Oliver is now going to be the star of the show, using real events to make AI generated pictures for his book. Stay tuned, whilst we might not have any bees for now. We will have a book hopefully and we will “bee” 🐝 back again too. This year hopefully. 🤞

28/01/2026

Could it be a coincidence, who knows. It’s been two very brutal winters. I’ll await the UK statistics via Gov.

U.S. beekeepers reported unusually severe colony deaths going into early 2025, with the hardest hit coming from large commercial operations that normally have the resources and expertise to keep losses lower.

A widely cited Project Apis m. effort found commercial beekeepers (more than 500 colonies) averaged about 62% colony losses over the June 2024 to early 2025 period. In the same set of findings, hobbyist beekeepers (1–49 colonies) averaged about 51%, while sideliner operations (50–500 colonies) averaged about 54%.

Separate nationwide tracking through the 2024–2025 U.S. Beekeeping Survey reported that beekeepers lost an estimated 55.6% of managed colonies from April 1, 2024 to April 1, 2025, the highest since annual tracking began, and well above the 14-year average of 41.4%.

Winter losses were especially punishing in that survey. From Oct. 1, 2024 to April 1, 2025, estimated losses were 40.2%, which the survey notes is about 10.9 percentage points above the long-running winter average (29.3%).

Researchers and industry leaders have described the situation as unusually serious. Cornell entomologist Scott McArt warned that “something real bad is going on,” as the scale of losses showed up during the winter movement of hives for crop pollination, especially into California.

Washington State University experts have also warned that commercial losses could land in the 60% to 70% range in 2025, citing the likelihood that multiple stressors are stacking together.

Investigations have focused on overlapping causes that can compound quickly in managed colonies, including Varroa destructor mites, virus pressure, nutrition shortfalls, pesticide exposure, and weather extremes. Public updates also point to lab work examining viruses such as deformed wing virus and acute bee paralysis, alongside concerns about miticide resistance in varroa mites.

26/01/2026

It’s a sad day for us at Cariad Honey 🍯🐝

I went out today to put fondant on the hives after what has already been a brutal couple of seasons. The mild, confusing winter of 2024/25 wiped out the majority of our bees, but we managed to nurse two hives through and get them to the other side 🥶

Sadly, with the recent extreme cold and those colonies being small, we’ve now lost our final two hives.

It’s been a blast. It’s been a rollercoaster. It’s been busy, exhausting, and at times completely overwhelming. And honestly, the last few years have left even very experienced beekeepers scratching their heads. We’ve gone from over-protecting — insulating, draft-proofing, doing everything possible — to stepping back and letting bees do what bees do best. Somewhere in between, things clearly need rethinking.

So yes, we’ve got work to do. We will be back, but it means going back to basics: solid swarm collections, proper quarantines, protecting key genetics, and building a strategy that actually works in this new reality.

For now, from all of us at Cariad Honey, thank you. Thank you for the support, the love, the sharing, and the caring over the years. Please stay tuned.

Right now, we’re just a little sad… and a little quiet 🐝

21/01/2026

Oh dear 🐝

18/11/2025

Frankenstein 👻 🐝

01/11/2025

Mmmm 😋 we might not have produced honey, we have lots of wax…. Should we try it? Would you try it? 🐝

16/08/2025

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 AUGUST 2025 UPDATE 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

It’s quite a sad to be thinking that, this time last year we was getting ready for harvesting and spinning. This year we’re still growing and hoping to get the bees through winter. We wish we could be sharing honey with you all this year but sadly, despite the epic summer which would have been immense for a blowout summer season harvest 😞 🐝

However we will remain optimistic for bouncing back and giving you what you all love and crave so much, the most purest local honey, literally on your doorstep. It’s been a quiet one this year for positing, more so than normal, we’ve been busy too with a little new arrival soon to be arriving, as in imminently arriving….. any guesses 😂

Will be doing a split over the next day or so ready to build them up and get them winter strong and ready.

I’ll go through the messages soon, but as already predicted, sadly no honey this year, for the first time time since we started 🐝 🍯 . However that won’t always be the way, just a lull 😞

All our love, Stu, Amy, Nigel, boys, bump and 🐝