JSR Farming Group Helping to Safeguard the UK’s Bees

Mark Evamy of Woldgate Honey keeps over 250 million Bees on eight of JSR’s farming sites across Yorkshire during peak season. That is 4 bees for every person in the UK! This is only a small part of Mark’s honey business that produces upwards of 86 tonnes of honey a year making him the one of the largest commercial honey producers in the UK.

The JSR hives are strategically placed alongside flowering crops and our specially planted wild flower strips to support honey production with the added benefit of up to 20% increased crop yields. Many of the hives are placed near Oil Seed Rape fields due to the vast amounts of nectar produced by the flowers; Bees also like other flowering crops such as beans and peas.

Usually the hives are placed on a ratio of one hectare of flowering crop per hive, with each hive holding up to 50,000 Bees in the summer months. As well as having crops to collect nectar from, JSR plant several pollen and nectar mixes as part of countryside stewardship schemes along with various wild flower mixes to encourage wildlife and increase honey production.

Bee Facts

When there is a lack of nectar available over winter, Mark’s 8 employees look after the Bees on JSR land by feeding them an inverted sugar mix which consists of a combination of glucose and fructose syrup and as long as the conditions are ok, Bees will produce honey all year round. JSR help at this time by offering sheltered land to keep the hives safe.

JSR are large believers that Bees are important to the future of UK agriculture and continues to strive toward improving all environmental conditions across the areas it farms, encouraging wildlife to prosper in its natural habitat while pursuing improvements in efficiency of all working arable land.