It began the way a lot of hobbies do — a late-night video, an impulsive purchase, and a healthy amount of not knowing what he was getting into. Five years on, he manages forty hives and has a waiting list for his honey that runs into next spring.

The steep learning curve

“I lost my first hive within two months. Completely my fault, completely avoidable if I’d actually read anything before buying the equipment.” He now runs a small mentoring group for beginners, partly to stop other people making the same mistakes.

Why it scaled so fast

Word travelled locally once the honey started selling, and demand simply outpaced supply every year. “I never set out to have forty hives. It just kept being the obvious next step.”

The bit people don’t expect

“It’s incredibly calming, oddly. You can’t rush around bees — they punish that instantly. It’s forced me to slow down in every other part of my life too.”