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Improving the world, One Bee at a time
Hi, I’m kt from kt bee’s honey
Thankyou for taking the time to visit KT Bee's. I thought I would tell you a little about myself and how KT Bee's started. Born and raised in Norfolk, I was lucky to grow up in a rural part of the county. I originally trained to be a veterinary nurse and exotic species specialist at Easton College. After graduating, I spent time on a farmstead in Australia whilst I was traveling which is where my fascination for bees started as I helped the beekeeper while I was there and hoped one day to keep some hives myself. My passion from a child was horses, so when I returned home to Norfolk I opened my own livery yard, decided not to go down the veterinary nursing route, but was busy with the horses so no time for Bees.
After suffering a life changing injury a few years ago when one of my Suffolk Punch horses accidentally fell on me I had to make the huge decision to step back from the horse world due to my injury as I no longer had the mobility to look after the horses. This change in life, plus the impact of the 2020 lockdown, gave me the the opportunity to revisit bee keeping. I was very lucky to get in contact with and subsequently be mentored by Stewart Spinks a local bee farmer and educator. With Stewart's help and patience I have moved from hobby apiarist to successfully running KT Bees. Alongside him I was also very fortunate to connect with Diane Drinkwater who throughout lockdown ran three Zoom meetings a week teaching us all about bees. I’m lucky enough to now call both these inspirational people friends. When life got back to normal and Diane understandably had to stop the three Bee Chats a week a few of us from Diane’s group got together and started Friday Night Bee Chat and I would not be without this amazing group of beekeeping enthusiasts and my friends all know I’m busy every Friday night!
So from starting off thinking about a couple of hives in my back garden I’m now operating over 21 hives across five apiary sites providing different flavours of honey. KT Bees is now a fixture at local farmers markets and artisan fairs, as well as supplying local shops and delicatessens, producing products from the hive like candles, soaps, lip balms, leather balms, etc. and still growing my colonies.
I was introduced to another fellow beekeeper by Stewart who he also mentored called Pete. Pete and I now share some of the apiary sites. This helps me no end as even though I use lightweight hives they are still too heavy sometimes and as I walk with crutches it’s not always possible to carry them alone. What would we do without our friends.
AWARD WINNING HONEY
I lived for competition with my horses and then I found out I could compete with honey - life was getting better and better! Our various honeys and beekeeping related products have all recently received first, second and third place awards from the National Honey Show in London, the largest honey show in the world. We have also been successful winning first, second and third places at local honey competitions, the Royal Norfolk Show, Suffolk Show and Sandringham Flower Show.