easier-to-read text transcription below....
THINGS will be really buzzing in the
beleaguered bee world in the New Year. A North-East couple
who have set up a business selling flavoured honey are
drawing up plans to encourage the traditional skills of
bee-keeping in the region. Their aim is also to encourage farmers to
diversify into hives and safeguard the crucial role of bees
as pollinators. It is hoped that the growth of a thriving
regional honey industry would prompt the return of
hedgerows, hay meadows and flowering field margins to the
landscape. At the same time, a £43,000 project
will raise awareness of bees and bee-keeping in
Northumberland and help train people who want to take up the
hobby. This is becoming increasingly important as wild
honeybee colonies are stricken by the deadly varroa
virus. The KidHugs company, which sells tubs of
honey in 25 different natural flavours, was set up by Linda
Reay, with husband Tony as general manager. The Darlington couple sell their honey at
markets, fairs and events across the North-East. Demand is
so great that at a three-day event at Brancepeth Castle in
County Durham they sold £1,300 worth of
stock. Linda is from Texas and Tony, whose
father's family come from the Whitley Bay area, was raised
on Teesside before leaving for the United States in 1967
where he set up a music magazine called Creem. After living and working across America,
he and Linda and their two children returned to the
North-East three years ago. Linda decided to go into business after a
friend of the couple, who runs a honey farm in Colorado,
sent them a batch of honey sticks. The clear plastic tubes of flavoured
honey are popular in the United States in the exercise and
leisure market, where they are used by joggers and
cyclists. The couple, sold 3,200 sticks at a
two-day public event and that convinced them that there was
a market in the UK for
flavoured-honey. They have now applied for help from
regional development agency One NorthEast to market their
own version of honey sticks, but their main product is
flavoured honey tubs which have sweet pea seeds taped to the
bottom of the carton to encourage buyers to grow a flower
for the bees. Tony says: 'We have demonstrated there is
a market for flavoured honey which is in addition to the
traditional market, because 65% of our customers say they
didn't like the taste of honey by itself." One of the problems, reckons Tony, is
that in recent years youngsters have grown up without honey
on the table, unlike earlier
generations. According to Tony, less than half of the 25,000
tonnes of honey consumed annually in the UK is produced in
this country. The rest is imported. The couple use 1501bs of honey a week on
average. 'We are selling everything
we can get our hands on but the biggest stumbling block is
the lack of large quantities of
British honey," says Tony. 'We only use British honey and
only want to use British honey, especially from the
North-East. 'We can use all the honey which local bee
keepers can supply, and I feel we can end up with an
exportable product and create an industry which, will help
the fortunes of the region." For Linda and Tony the next
step is to encourage more bee-keeping and honey production
in the North-East. One idea is to erect plastic geodesic
domes, powered by solar or wind sources, to provide
under-cover management of bee colonies. "The advantages are that the domes are
not classed as permanent, buildings -
they can be sited on land which is not used for anything
else," says Tony. Farmers could either move into honey
production themselves or simply provide the sites for the
domes. "This is a venture which would make money
but cause no damage to the land or wider environment, would
ensure more bees and better pollination of crops, and
encourage the provision of flowering plants in hedges,
meadows or field margins. "Our aim is to see a dramatic increase in
bee-keeping, the training of people
in the skills needed, and which could also be
of benefit to farming," says Tony. "It is a
sensible way to maintain land. The bee has to qualify as one
of the most important creatures on the planet and has been
traditionally respected, while honey has long been a
valuable currency and commodity." "It is only in recent years that honey
and bees have been marginalised as artificial sweeteners and
flavourings have come to the fore, and hedgerows and
flowering meadows lost. Historically, Britain is at its
lowest ebb for honey production and the importing of more
than half of the honey we consume would have been an alien
concept in the past." "There is no reason why Britain cannot
grow enough flowering plants to turn out the honey we
need." Linda says: "This could be much more than
a cottage industry. At a time when obesity is an issue,
honey is a natural product with no fats or
sodium."
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