We are absolutely BUZZING to share the news that Kingsbarns has some new residents - Fife honey bees! Mandy, our resident beekeeper-supreme, and part time tour guide here at the distillery, has been very generous and moved one of her four hives to our site. We are very excited at the prospect of incorporating yet more of the local landscape into our purview and doing what we can to protect it.
Mandy has looked after bees for the better part of the last 15 years and is a part of a growing handful of beekeepers in the villages around our distillery in the East Neuk of Fife. Looking after bees has been a 'steep learning curve' for Mandy and she has discovered it takes a lot to keep them fed, warm and happy through all of our tumultuous seasons up in Scotland. She has found many ways to get around this though including the use of fondant (yes, like the icing) as a foodstuff for the bees as it is high in sugar - perfect for their honey!
Bees play a vital, nae critical, role in our environment and we are very excited to be accommodating them as we continue to take steps towards a more sustainable presence in our environment. With our gin cottage right next door we hope they will bring a flourishing botanical garden for us to forage a stone's throw from the door!
"Bees are hugely important to us. They are great pollinators and about one third of our food is dependant on pollinators. As Einstein said 'If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.' I want to raise awareness of just how important this species is to humans and our ecosystem."
Mandy, our resident beekeeper
The hive Mandy has moved to the distillery site is a Polyhive. Polyhives are made from polystyrene and are becoming increasingly popular among beekeepers for their durability, light weight, ease of maintenance and insulation properties. There are around 10,000 bees in a hive so come the height of summer we hope to have all of them buzzing around and increasing the biodiversity, strength and health of our East Neuk site. STAY TUNED!
