Tuesday 13 December 2011

Run up to Christmas

I'm hating this weather at the moment. All I ever seem to do is worry that my beehives have blown over all the time, it's getting on my nerves. I hope the gale force wind will have stopped by the 19th as it's Chester Christmas market again for me. It's a whole week this time and during the run up to Christmas so fingers crossed it should be good, if the weather holds off!! Also looking into getting an observation hive for food festivals and stalls next year to grab even more peoples attention. Anyone got any tips on how to use one?? Could get nasty if they escaped in the middle of a food festival!!!

Thursday 8 December 2011

A taste of heaven.....

Been keeping an eye on the hives with all the high winds around at the moment. They are still going out on nice days, bringing back pollen. Is amazing to think it's December and they are still working. Don't know if that says more about the bees or the weather!!! Talking to some other bee keepers recently, they have had to start feeding candy to their colonies as they are so busy. Slaving over a hot oven again today with the honey buns and honey and oat cookies for the Bellis Brothers, Wrexham tasting session on Saturday 9th December. Will be some free tasting of my lovely Hilltop Honey if you fancy coming to see us.......Also the packages have started to arrive to make up some hamper baskets. Haven't got all the stock yet so they won't be ready until I am back up to Chester Victorian Market on 19th - 24th December. Come and see how marvellous they look on our stall then. They will make fantastic Christmas presents......

Saturday 3 December 2011

Free Samples.....

Well.....that was really fantastic at Chester Victorian Market......will be back there on the run up to Christmas from the 19th to 24th December so come and see us! We might even have some surprises in store for you on the stall.......This Sunday 4th December we are at Charlie's Coed y Dinas in Welshpool with a free tasting session of our gorgeous 100% British Honey along with some free sample tasty titbits of honey buns and honey, raisin and oat cookies made with with our lovely honey to get you in the mood for Christmas shopping......see you there!!!

Thursday 1 December 2011

Chester Victorian Market

Wow...Chester Victorian Market is a busy place! We are there for the next few days so come and see us for a free taste and to buy some yummy 100% pure British honey. I have a hive there with some drawn out frames too if you fancy a closer look (obviously minus the bees!!). Don't forget that hilltop honey makes a fantastic Christmas present for the pure honey aficionados out there. I haven't managed to do any more baking though as too busy selling hilltop honey in my little decorated cabin. Had the scouts out yesterday for some Christmas decorations to adorn the inside of my cabin as this was arranged extremely last minute!!! Have a lovely assortment of lights and decs now so should be looking very Christmassy now! So come on down and have a look! And if you do, let me know you follow me on the blog. I would love to meet some of my followers!!

Monday 28 November 2011

Tasting night at Bellis Brothers

The tasting night went brilliantly. There was an amazing turn out, at one point me and my cousin were so busy we couldn't even eat the mince pie that Ann from Bellis Brothers so kindly gave us!Eventually it did quieten down but not before we sold most of the honey on the shelf :-). A big thank you to Bellis Brothers for providing Hilltop Honey with our first venue for a stall. Look out Coed-y-Dinas this Saturday as we are heading there with more free samples!!!

Friday 25 November 2011

Bellis Brothers garden centre tonight!!!

Going to be baking our free samples from our recipe cards all day today for our stall at Bellis Brothers garden centre. Also there will be free samples of our honey - hope 200 spoons are enough!!

Wednesday 23 November 2011

New Outlet

We have been taken on by another big shop today!! Aberystwyth Art Centre! They are the first shop to take stock of our British and Welsh honey. Looking forward to Bellis Brothers Garden centre on Friday now where their having a meet the people behind the product night.

Monday 21 November 2011

Recipe card


This is one of two of our new recipe cards. Please print this one off and have a go at cooking them.We would love to know how you get on.

Delivered

My honey I sent out on Friday by courier for the first time has successfully been delivered :-). Also I cant believe the bees are still fetching pollen in November. Had a look at them on the weekend and they were working like mad. Just think this time last year we were up to our knees in snow!!!!

Friday 18 November 2011

By Courier

Today is my first delivery by courier!! There are two boxes of 12 jars heading out - one to Maples delicatessen in Bradford-on-Avon and the other to Deli and Dine in Retford. I have never sent out anything by courier so I hope everything goes to plan. Also I want to say thank you to Maples Deli and Deli and Dine for taking the product on.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Bottling!!

Bottling up the new batch of British wild flower and field bean honey (lush!!!). Stays runny for longer hopefully for all you runny honey fans! Also bottling up a limited supply of tasty Welsh honey which Sugar and Spice Newtown have recently taken on - thanks!!

Hilltop Honey is in many local shops in Newtown, Montgomery, Welshpool, Llani, Rhayader, Wrexham, Oswestry and Ludlow. It makes lovely Christmas presents so keep that in mind when you are out doing your Christmas shopping!!

Thursday 10 November 2011

Website

Got my website meeting today which i'm very much looking forward too. Had a course a couple of days ago about website marketing and basically you need to get on the first page of Google which is no mean feat. Seo, keyword, pings, links I'd rather you show me a bee any day of the week!

Friday 4 November 2011

Runny Honey!!

Yesterday was a day of good news which is nice because it hasn't happen a lot since starting this business. Thanks to my new warming cabinet I now have runny honey woop woop!! This now means people have a choice of 100% pure British honey runny or set. Something else to celebrate about yesterday was my product being stocked by 2 big garden centres - The lord Moreton and Bellis Brothers. To your left is a picture of my liquid gold in its warming cabinet ready to be shipped out to the Lord Moreton garden centre. Good times :-)

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Intense Sales and Marketing Course

Yesterday I had a very intense sales and marketing course, which taught us to look at our selves and our product more. Basicly if we know why someone wants to buy the product over other competitors and know what differentiates our product then this will come across in the sales pitch. So cue a big day of selling to garden centres again today. Also you have to keep prospecting by that I mean phoning and chasing leads for sales all the time. I know it sounds obvious but apparently people like running a business so much they forget to keep selling which ultimately keeps your business alive no matter how good you are at accounts.

Monday 31 October 2011

Still working

Can't believe my bees are still working at the end of October. Starting to worry about if they have enough food to keep going through the Winter as they might be using it all now!!

Friday 28 October 2011

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Facebook

hilltop honey is up and running on facebook. I think. Setting up a page was a lot harder than I anticipated for some reason especially setting up a like box I still don't think I have done it. Anyway please have a look and click like and post any comments you may have. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilltop-honey/238188782901504

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Social Media Marketing Course

Good god alive I never knew there were so many ways to market your company my brain is well and truly fried after that course. I would never keep up with them all so I think I'm just going to stick with facebook, twitter and linkedin and of course my blog and website. I haven't yet created facebook, twitter or a website but they are on the horizon. So look out facebook hilltop honey is coming to town you better have enough members ha ha ha.

Monday 24 October 2011

Still working

I went for a walk to see my hives the other day for no particular reason other than to see if they were still there and to my surprise there was hundreds of them working still. I couldn't believe that were getting to the end of October and they were still going like mad. I won't be paying them any extra for that overtime. Already missing looking into my hives so bring on March next year.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Pont Farm

If you get your fresh veg delivered to your door by Pont Farm then ask for some honey cause we are now their honey suppliers. Also keep a keen eye out at any of the deli's around mid Wales for hilltop honey and if you go somewhere that hasn't got hilltop honey stocked their ask them why.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Road trip

I've been on a couple of selling road trips this week which have gone quite well. Sold just over a hundred jars to local deli's, butchers and cafes. Facing fierce competition from local producers especially one big local producer from Brecon. Never mind I will continue to persevere and hopefully sell the rest of my stock in the next couple of weeks.

Friday 14 October 2011

Finally my labels have arrived!!!!!

After a good 2 months of waiting my labels have finally arrived. I spent the best part of 4 hours looking out my window anticipating the delivery today. The wait was agonizingly painful. As soon as they got through the door I slapped them onto their respective jars and delivered them straight to charlies to fulfill the big order I received off them a few weeks ago. So.......... this is the start of my business and it feels like I have been trying for years and now it's finally here, exciting times. Look out Monday I will be selling like a man who has a lot of honey to sell ha ha.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Interesting bee fact of the week

The honeybee's wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

last check before winter

Finished my final check on my bees today and they are looking really good with plenty of stores. Just two hives need one more feed and they are done. Even inspecting them now i'm still anxious about them coming through the winter alive! But i cant do anymore so hopefully they will be fine. At the moment though they show no sign of letting up because their working like mad. I their working on the ivy. Cant believe were coming into the middle of October and the weather is still tidy for the nees to work on. Hope this post is ok im doing it off my new phone which im struggling to get used to ha ha.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Sniffer Bees!!!!!!!

I have just caught wind of the most interesting thing to do with bees ever!! People are now training bees to sniff out drugs and explosives instead of dogs. There are a couple of good reasons why to replace the dogs with bees because bees only take 10 minutes to be trained unlike 3-4 months for dogs. But the biggest reason is bees have a far superior sense of smell - they can sniff out the equivalent of a grain of sand in a swimming pool! The way it works is 3 or 4 bees are strapped into these little pods with a fan blowing air from in front of them. When someone walks past at say the airport with what the bees have been trained to smell, say cannabis, then they will stick out their proboscis. When they stick out their proboscis a camera/sensor will pick it up and sound the alarm. They are trained by pumping in the smell of sugar with the smell they want to train them for at the same time. Then they just pump in the smell they want them to pick up on its own and they stick out their proboscis in anticipation of food because they relate it to the sugar. I think it is a genius idea. What do you think??? It's going to change the way they find terrorists, IED's and drug dealers/smugglers etc but not only that, the medical sector too!!!

Monday 10 October 2011

FINALLY!!!

Finally I have finished feeding the hungryest bees in the world. Yet still I'm really anxious about them making it through the winter with enough stores. But they are all looking really healthy and well fed so there is no reason why they won't make it through. It's sad that I have nothing to do with them now till March so I will have to keep myself busy and start flogging my honey at food fairs and farmers markets which should be fun as I have never sold anything behind a stall before.

Friday 7 October 2011

Sales Training

I have an hour and a half sales training booked in for today. I've never had sales training before so this should be interesting. Don't know what to expect but hopefully I will have the gift of the gab after it :-). I'm just dying to get my product off the ground now which has felt like forever to achieve at the moment. Not long now though hopefully then I can put my sales training to good use.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Labels

The bees have still been busy even though the weather has turned much colder - good girls!! They should have enough supplies for winter soon. On the hilltop honey front, am waiting for the labels to be printed - was a little more long winded than I bargained for getting these sorted. They are in the pipeline now so that's good. They will be on the shelves soon!! Hoorah!!

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Monday 3 October 2011

Carpet or queen excluder????

Finally found the queen i have been looking for for months this morning hooray! It has given me some peace of mind before I shut them down for winter. She is a gorgeous black queen and I mean proper black 100% pure British strain of bee. Attached the mouse guards to all the hives today as well seeing as there is snow forecast. I just can't imagine snow coming as it's so hot now, who knows they have been wrong plenty of times before. Just got a couple of finishing touches before they go into winter now like putting the queen excluder on top of the crown board or I have heard of people putting carpet on top. What do you do with your hives? Maybe the carpet would be a good idea as it would keep them warm. Any suggestions or comments welcome.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Indian summer

I can't believe it's 30 degrees at the beginning of October. The girls are really putting in the overtime. I love watching the different varieties of coloured pollen being lugged in. I've actually had to open up the beehive entrances because they are so busy. Word is there is snow due this month so not long left until we go into our first winter - anxious times.....

Friday 30 September 2011

Interesting bee fact of the week

Did you know that at her peak laying time a queen bee will lay up to 3000 eggs per day. That's a lot of children to look after!

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Nevermind busy as a bee! Hungry as a bee more like.

Just tipped the 300kg mark for sugar. They are seriously hungry but I'm hoping this will do them now. I have 12 hives so that's 25 kg per hive. What does everyone think? Whats your experience with feeding?

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Where is Queen Liz?

Checked a small hive today for the sixth time and still haven't seen Liz! Plenty of eggs, 3 or 4 frames laid recently so there is obviously a queen in there somewhere. Can see the queen in all my other hives. Has anybody else had this problem? As I am heading for my first winter with bee hives, has anyone any tips for how much honey stores the bees need to safely overwinter?

Monday 26 September 2011

My first big order

Get in!! Received my first substantial order today. Finally all this hard work is starting to amount to something. My bees this morning didn't quite share the excitement with me, they were the complete opposite. They were for some reason fueled with rage towards me and as soon as I opened them up a barrage of fighter pilots were going straight for the face. God knows why they were annoyed? The weather was beautiful and they were about to receive some sugar syrup. So the only logical explanation is they caught wind of my first big order and were sad to see all their hard work go to someone else other than themselves. Obviously! So please look out for my honey at Charlies stores in the next couple of weeks.

Saturday 24 September 2011

My Product

This is my Jar that is going onto the shelves in the next couple of weeks. Make sure you look out for it.  Please give me any comments you have about it. Thanks

Friday 23 September 2011

Seeing into the future

How can I see into the future!? 2 days 2 meetings one asking when am I going to retire and the other how many jars I'm going to sell in 11 months time. Anybody else feel like they need to see into the future to answer questions. My answer is I don't know but I know what I want to sell or when I want to retire. The only thing the bee's have got to worry about is if I'm going to give them enough sugar. I wonder what they would say if you asked them where do you see yourself in 11 months time?? I imagine the response would be "alive hopefully." Off to predict the future for 12 months now so see you later.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Interesting bee fact of the week

Did you now that my bee's have flown 41,000 miles just to make a 340g jar of honey.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Stung, blogged and marketed out

Afternoon fellow bee enthusiasts, this is my first ever post and blog so please go easy on me. My name is Scott Davies, I live in Newtown Mid Wales. I have 12 hives going into winter from my first year of being a bee keeper or shall I say bee owner? :-) Today I just popped up to see how my work force (the bees) were getting on with their feed. Stupidly I thought to my self I'm only going to be a few seconds so I wont need my suit. Approximately 30 seconds later here I come running down the garden being chased by my work force. Obviously angry about the pay! Anyway I learnt my lesson and popped back up armoured to the teeth. It's also been a very exciting day meeting with Lori Whinn from www.totalfoodmarketing.co.uk who is helping me out with the launch of my brand "hilltop honey" which will be 100% British from bee farmers around the U.K supplying the honey. Also when I have a sufficient number of hives I will have a Welsh honey as part of the brand. After meeting with her I have a massive list of what to do to market my brand so now my head is all over the place of which route to go down first. Anyway thank you for reading my very first post. There will be plenty more to come so please keep in touch.