Manchester Honey Company

22/10/2026

If you are thinking about Christmas gifting already, you are either very organised or know that all the good stuff will sell out early. Either way, we can help.

We have raw local honey from around Manchester, and we also do gift boxes so it turns up looking like a proper present, not like you panic-bought something on a Tuesday night.

If you are buying for a beekeeper, here is what I would actually want

Fancy smoker fuel (the good stuff)
A ridiculous lighter that makes you feel like you are on a cooking show
Soda crystals because everything ends up covered in propolis
A branding iron or stencil so you can label kit and pretend you are a professional

If you want the easy option, honey in a gift box is hard to argue with.

If you are buying for a beekeeper, what would you add to the list

21/10/2026

Corporate orders have gone from a nice little side project to coming in thick and fast!

Which is absolutely brilliant—and also mildly chaotic when you suddenly realise you have to hand-tie approximately one million tiny ribbons.

If you’re looking for a proper, authentic Manchester gift this year, this is it.

We do mini jars of raw local honey, made right here by actual Manchester bees, complete with the postcode printed on the lid. It’s basically a little slice of Manchester you can eat.

Whether you're sorting out client gifts, staff thank-you, or filling up Christmas hampers, drop us a message and we'll chat through the options.

(And yes—they really are 100% genuine Manchester bees. Ribbons tied by us, stings endured by us, honey made by them.) 🎀🍯✨

20/10/2026

National honey day tomorrow

National Honey Day is tomorrow! 🍯🐝

Our ask is beautifully simple: buy just one jar of local honey.
That’s it. One jar to enjoy and one small way to support a local beekeeper and the bees in your corner of the country.

Got yours ready? Tell us where you found it and come back tomorrow to share how it tastes. 👇

20/10/2026

Quick winter bee fact, because this one surprises people.

Honey bees do not really hibernate or sleep their way through winter.

When it gets cold, they cluster. Thousands of bees pack together into a tight ball inside the hive. The outside bees act like insulation, the inside bees generate heat by vibrating their flight muscles, and they slowly rotate positions so nobody is stuck on the cold edge for too long.

It is basically a living, breathing central heating system powered by teamwork and stored honey.

So when you see a hive in winter and it looks quiet, it is not empty. They are in there, working.

If you want to help bees locally, the best thing you can do right now is leave a bit of the garden messy. Ivy, late flowers, and even weeds matter.

If you have got a question about what the bees are up to this time of year, drop it below.

19/10/2026

This was such a surprise

19/10/2026

What does a beekeeper do in winter?? Renovate his own house obviously!! We spend all summer looking after the bees so the winter is for extreme DIY. I will say that Gareth is getting a lot of help from Andy our amazing builder.

19/10/2026

Three weeks into a house renovation and I’ve learned that dust isn’t just a substance.

It’s a lifestyle.

It’s settled on every imaginable surface. It doesn’t wipe off—it smears. You clean one bit and it somehow multiplies right behind your back like it’s breeding.

The funny thing is, beekeeping already involves far more scrubbing than anyone tells you. Sticky kit, propolis, bits of wax, rogue honey drips, and gloves that will never, ever feel fully clean again.

Now stack a house renovation on top of that, and the sheer volume of cleaning becomes genuinely absurd.

I’ve attached a photo as a reminder that our beekeeping suits were actually bright, gleaming white once. Can I confess something, though? We had to snap those photos before we used them, because no real beekeeper on earth is ever that clean

On the bright side? We actually have a floor running all the way from the front door now. Progress

So if you’ve seen me out and about looking slightly haggard lately, it’s not the bees doing it to me. It’s the dust.

If you’re currently surviving your own renovation chaos, please reassure me that it gets better in the comments so I know I’m not alone

18/10/2026

We are really looking forward to the National Honey Show.

If you are going, come and say hi. We are the ones who will be talking about honey like it is a personality trait.

Also, in a completely predictable turn of events, I once again failed to buy Sara Robb workshop tickets in time.

So if you cannot go and you have a ticket going spare, I will happily buy it off you.

If you are heading down, tell me what you are most excited to see this year. I always go in with a plan and then get distracted by shiny kit and beekeeping gossip.

17/10/2026

Autumn reminder that a beehive is basically a very expensive wooden draft excluder.

Most modern hive designs were standardised when wood was scarce (war time practicality and all that). They work, but they are not exactly what a colony would choose.

In a tree, the walls around them would be far thicker than a single skin of timber, and the entrance would usually be smaller and easier to defend.

So this time of year we think a lot about insulation, reducing drafts, and not giving them a massive empty space to heat for no reason.

If you keep bees, what is your winter setup

If you do not keep bees, the short version is this: they are not asleep, they are just trying to stay warm and not waste energy