Worcestershire's beekeeping association dates from 14 October 1882, when it was founded at a meeting in Worcester Guildhall, prompted by a lecture given in Evesham earlier that year. Worcestershire Beekeepers' Association now holds its county honey show at the Malvern Autumn Show on the Three Counties Showground, and runs the Bees and Honey show at the Royal Three Counties Show jointly with the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire associations.
The county's mix of hedgerows, woodland, orchards and fields shows in the honey. Foragers Bee & Honey Company, run by Master Beekeeper Rhona Toft, sells single-origin honey named after individual apiaries, mostly around Pershore. Fruitfields, a family smallholding in north Worcestershire, keeps bees among an orchard of heritage Worcestershire apple varieties, Wychbold Honey has 11 hives in apiaries close to Wychbold, and around Kidderminster Bee Kind Honey takes separate spring and summer harvests from apiaries in Kidderminster and Chaddesley Corbett.
Much of it is sold direct or online. Beekeepingit Sweet in Evesham and Bee Marvellous near Redditch sell through their own online shops, Bee Kind's honey is on the shelves at Hodgehill farm shop outside Kidderminster, and the county association's website has a postcode search for members selling honey near you.
Plum, apple, pear and cherry blossom across the Vale from late March into May is the county's signature, and growers still rely on managed colonies for pollination — an arrangement that suits both sides. Asparagus, soft fruit and market gardening fill the same ground through summer. West of the Severn the country changes: the Malvern Hills and the Teme valley bring hawthorn, sycamore, wild cherry and woodland forage, with hop yards still worked around Bromyard and the Teme. The Severn and Avon valleys carry willow early and Himalayan balsam late. Worcester and Malvern themselves add parkland lime and garden forage.
Delicate and pale where fruit blossom dominates the spring crop; a fuller mixed-blossom honey by late summer.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Worcester, Malvern, Evesham, Kidderminster, Redditch, Droitwich, Pershore, Bromsgrove
Sometimes, and only in spring. Beekeepers who take a super off after the orchard blossom finishes in May can bottle it separately — it is pale and delicate. Most years it is blended into the main crop instead, so ask producers around Evesham and Pershore directly in early summer.
Yes. Colonies are moved into the Vale's orchards for the spring blossom, which is why several producers here run more hives than a hobbyist would. It also means their bees are working a genuinely local, identifiable crop rather than general farmland forage.
Use the listing details to choose how to buy, then contact the producer before travelling.
The directory does not track live stock or harvest dates. Availability, collection, delivery, prices and seasonal varieties can change, so ask the producer to confirm what is currently available.
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