Wye Valley Bees

Wye Valley Bees is one family and a few dozen hives, kept across three villages in Monmouthshire. We got into this the way most people do — one hive at the bottom of the garden — and never quite stopped. Everything we sell, we made ourselves, this summer, within a few miles of where you’re reading this.

We keep our honey single-origin because the bees taught us to. Move a hive five miles and the jar changes — Raglan comes out soft and meadow-pale, Penallt dark and almost citrus, Dingestow deep and floral. Blend them and you lose all of that. So we don’t. Each village is jarred on its own, capped when the bees decide it’s ready, extracted cold and left unfiltered so the character stays in.

There’s no trick to it and no shortcut — only local bees that never taste sugar water, hives that don’t travel, and a pair of hands going through every frame. It’s slow, and it means there’s only ever as much honey as the summer allows. When a village sells out, it’s gone until next year. We think that’s honest, and we think you can taste it.

Come and taste all three side by side at one of our tastings, or find us at Monmouth market. Either way — thanks for caring where your honey comes from. It’s the whole reason we do this.