Lift the lid on how lovely Lancashire honey is made on this Honey Bee experience! What's not to love about a guided visit around The Bee Centre? You'll be able to dress up as a beekeeper and experience what it's like to look after a hive - and you'll get to find out what these busy bees get up to!
The Bee Centre is set in two acres of wildflower meadows, just south of Preston, on the way to Chorley. The honeybees are content and peaceful here in their lovely habitat, surrounded by hedgerows and woodlands.
The buzzing residents also have an important role to play. The honey they produce is used to flavour Cuckoo Sunshine Gin, which is distilled at the adjacent Brindle Distillery. Using lots of ingredients grown on their farm, this raspberry and honey-infused gin is a wonderful sweet and summery homage to these busy Lancashire bees.
The humans at The Bee Centre breed Lancashire honeybees, deliver beekeeping training for beginners and professional bee farmers, create bee-friendly habitats and lots more. On these honeybee experiences, you will be given an insight into what both the human team and the insect team get up to - and it's utterly fascinating stuff.
A highlight for all would-be beekeepers has to be the chance to get kitted out in the full beekeeping suit. The long-sleeved white overalls, gloves and, in particular, the beekeeping hat and veil, are what makes a beekeeper. It's great fun to get all the gear on, open up a hive and get a feel for what it's like to be a beekeeper. Y ou'll get an insider's view into the world of the bees. You can watch them constructing honeycomb, doing their funny little ‘waggle dance', making honey and even observe baby bees ‘being born'. Look carefully and you might just spot the all-important Queen Bee.
We think a day out with the apiarists and their bees on this honey bee experience is just superb. After all, who wouldn't want to see for themselves where all that lovely runny honey you like spread on your hot buttered toast really comes from?
• The Bee Centre at Brindle, near Chorley
• Spectators are welcome to watch and listen to the experience from the designated viewing area (subject to Covid-19 restrictions)
• Explore the world of the honeybee
• See how honey is made in Lancashire
• Get kitted out in all the beekeeper gear
• Help the beekeepers open & inspect a hive