The Bee Farmer
​David McDowell has had bees in his life for more than thirty years
He is a passionate honey producer, educator and advocate for all things bees.
In his twenties, David Mc Dowell decided he was wasting his 'downtime' and so decided to enrol on a short course on something practical. Originally from Didsbury, Manchester, he came across the Worker's Education Association and, for no apparent reason, decided that their course in bee keeping would be the thing to do over the winter months.
The course was ran from October to April which was neatly arranged to coincide with the start of the bee keeping year. Having duely passed the course, bees have been in his life for more than thirty years since.
There's no limit to the places David has kept bees; on a golf course in Sale, in the garden of his old house in Gorton, at his allotment in Levenshulme and latterly, following a move the Leicestershire, on farms in Leicestershire and his new allotment in Derbyshire.
Redundancy in 2013 afforded David the opportunity to make bee keeping his profession and his dream was realised in early 2014 when he took on half a bee-keeping business.
Having been daydreaming and conjuring up mental plans for years, he was now able to put it all in to action. Since then, his business has gone from strength to strength and led him to the unofficial title of the UK's only professional beekeeper! Education is a major part of David's work and he is very active locally giving talks to schools, Women's Institute, the Allotment Association and has also features on BBC radio and Countryfile program. He is a true advocate for bees and is a member of the BBKA (British Bee Keepers Association) and the BFA (Bee Farmer's Association).
We first ran in to David at a Leicestershire tourism and hospitality event where it was really interesting to talk to him about the educational side of his business. As well as stocking the honey wherever we can for our breakfast menus, we are also able to offer "meet the supplier" type events where you can experience bee keeping and learn all about just how important these little creatures are. For more information on these experience days, click the link below:
Explore bee keeping experiences
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This brochure contains just a sample of the sort of menus we can produce for your event and is designed to give you a sense of our passion for great food. They are sample menus and are subject to change based on availability of produce.
