About Us
The Bees
Bee welfare is at the heart of everything we do. We care for our colonies throughout the year, regularly assessing their health, temperament and strength and making thoughtful decisions according to the needs of each individual colony.
Our approach is to work with the natural rhythm of the bees, rather than pushing them to produce as much honey as possible. We allow colonies the space they need to grow, carefully manage issues when they arise and help them remain strong and healthy through the changing seasons.
Honey is harvested only when a colony has produced a genuine surplus. We leave the bees with plentiful stores of their own and make sure they are well prepared for winter before taking anything for ourselves. This means the amount we harvest varies from one colony and season to the next—but the needs of our bees will always come first.
The Beekeeper
Tom Nickisson-Richards is the beekeeper behind The Hampshire Honey Co.
“My interest in bees and honey production began after a visit to a small apiary on the Croatian island of Korčula. What started as curiosity soon grew into a fascination with the life of the colony, the craft of beekeeping and the remarkable way honey captures the landscape and season in which it is made.
That experience inspired me to begin keeping bees at our apiary in South Warnborough, where the colonies forage across the surrounding Hampshire countryside. Over time, a personal fascination became The Hampshire Honey Co.—a small-batch honey business shaped by a respect for the bees and a desire to produce honest, distinctive honey with a genuine connection to the place it comes from.”
The Honey
Our honey comes only from the bees’ surplus stores. In a good season, a strong and healthy colony can produce more honey than it needs, but every colony is different. We assess each one individually and harvest only when there is a genuine surplus, always leaving the bees with plentiful stores of their own.
Rather than gathering everything into a single annual crop, we usually harvest several small batches during the spring and summer. This preserves the character of each harvest and allows the natural differences in colour, flavour and texture to shine through. These variations reflect the changing flowers, weather and landscape surrounding the apiary throughout the season.
Visit Batch Details to discover when and where your honey was harvested, along with the story behind each individual batch.
The Apiary
At present, all our bees are kept at a single apiary in South Warnborough, a small Hampshire village nestled in the North Downs between Odiham and Alton. The apiary looks out across the village and the surrounding fields—a peaceful corner of Hampshire that has been part of our family’s history for more than 80 years.
For us, this is far more than simply somewhere to keep bees. It is a place with a deep personal connection and, in our opinion, a very special setting in which to produce honey.
From their home in South Warnborough, the bees forage across a varied patchwork of countryside, hedgerows, gardens, farmland and mature trees. The available flowers change continually from spring into late summer, giving each harvest its own natural colour, flavour and character. Every jar therefore offers a small and distinctive taste of the landscape surrounding our apiary.