Black Bee Honey
Black Bee Honey’s Paul Webb and Chris Barnes met at a Design Agency in London in 2001.
They first bonded over staying out too late and drinking pints in the pub, but as they grew up, so did their hobbies and after sharing many camping trips and long walks, they even ended up sharing a flat. After a mind expanding trip to New Zealand where Chris worked on a bee farm, the pair decided to set up Barnes & Webb, a London based company putting beehives on the rooftops of London.
Fast forward a few years and Paul has moved to Somerset to indulge his love of the Great Outdoors and bring up his young family. Chris has also left the Big Smoke for a seaside abode and to raise his baby daughter, and Barnes & Webb has metamorphosed into Black Bee Honey.
Having become increasingly frustrated with the poor quality honey on the supermarket shelves which bore no relationship to the floral liquid gold they discovered from keeping their own bees, Chris and Paul decided to do something about it. And by seeking out like minded beekeepers across the UK they are now bringing raw, unprocessed, high quality British honey to the masses. Black Bee Honey has eight honey varieties including Orchard, Seaside and their very own London Honey, from the East London apiary Chris still manages. This Autumn they will also be introducing a limited edition Somerset Honey - some of which will be harvested from Worminster Farm in future seasons.
Keep your eyes peeled for beekeeping workshops at the farm with Paul Webb - and have your eyes opened to the magic of beekeeping.
Black Bee, the definition: The Black Bee was the native British honey bee, which is thought to have died out in 1919 after a strain of Spanish flu took its toll. It was smaller, darker and hairier than the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), that we commonly see today, and was therefore more suited to our unpredictable cooler British weather. But sightings have been reported across the UK in recent years and many believe the Black Bee is making a slow but steady return.