From honey lover to part-time bee farmer, Darren Welcome's love for honey and his unusual interest in bees launched him into developing his own business.
After eating honey almost every day for 20 years, Darren decided to look into the production of honey.
He quickly grew an interest in bees which caught the attention of his friends, in which, one of them bought him a beehive for a Christmas present.
"I received a beehive for a Christmas present because I kept talking about bees. It started with one hive, then two, then six. I am now up to around 25-30 hives".
Today, Darren runs Hives and Honey, a beehive rental service in Birmingham.
“I decided one day that for something I am eating quite regular, I should know a little bit more about honey and how it's produced
“When I received the hive, I didn’t have clue on how to use it, I literally jumped in at the deep end, I had to build it myself, put it together, and because I had no experienced I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos."
When starting out, Darren didn’t know any beekeepers and had to join The British Beekeepers Association.
“My friends and family think what I do is really weird because I am not a typical bee keeper. A lot of them are 60 plus whereas I am in my 40s.
“It was a massive learning curve. A lot of bee keepers I have met are from the older generation, so they are a little bit closed off.”
Darren continues, “There was no one who was doing a bee-rental service in Birmingham, so it just filled the gap, if people were interested in keeping bees but had no bee keepers experience.”
Darren works in the marketing industry, however, he has been a bee keeper for six years and started Hives for Honey two years ago.
“The money goes straight back to the business, I just buy more hives or bees, or more equipment."
According to The British Bee Keepers Association, honey bees are a natural pollinator and plays a major role in the harvest industry. It is estimated that 1/3 of food is pollination-dependent by bees.
According to Darren, as a human race will only last about 5 years on this planet without bees.
“Every mouthful of food that we eat 1/3 of that is either pollinated by bees or insects across the air. So, to have bees on the endangered list is really worrying.”
“Certain species of bees are on a decline; however, I don’t think there will be extinct as such. Bees have been on the planet for millions of years but there are new diseases, new infections, and new predators, so there’s a decline but we want to push the population so that we can bounce back.”
Darren’s aim is to have beehives in every single postcode in Birmingham.
“If someone had an allergy like hay fever, it could be treated with local honey however it’s difficult to find spaces in certain locations in Birmingham.”
“During the winter time, it’s quiet as the bees go into hibernation. Late October-November, we start feeding them for the winter. We close them up and we don’t really open until about April time depending on the weather.”
Darren says, “There’s a lot of young people interested in this beekeeping now, which is helping the market.
“In the next five years, I would really like to be established as a queen breeder. But generally, I just want people to not to fear bees. They’re not scary, you have to get used to them. I just want to educate people on bees.”
