The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 19

HEADINGLEY FARMERS MARKET 19
• FEB/MAR 2020
STICKEYS
HONEY
I recently met up with the owner
of another of the market’s many
stallholders, Chris Holmes of
Stickeys Honey. Stickeys Honey
has been in existence since
2007. However, the beginnings
of Stickeys goes back to 2004.
Chris initially became interested
in keeping bees as a hobby in
2004 while still working full-time
for DEFRA, as well as teach-
ing meat technology at both
Thomas Danby College and
Leeds University, specialising in
environmental health. He joined
Leeds Beekeepers’ Association
and took an introductory
course and then a further one
at Woolley College in Wakefield,
after which Chris was hooked.
He met two local experienced
beekeepers - Mike Mee and
Robert Bolton - they allowed
Chris to work within their busi-
ness as an apprentice and really
learn bee keeping “hands on”.
Chris was very thankful for this
invaluable experience.
Chris began at home on his
small-holding in Flockton with
two hives which soon grew to
four, then eight and then sixteen,
with local people and friends
enquiring about and enjoying his
local honey.
Chis has always had two
dreams from an early age – one,
to be a ski instructor and two, to
have a small-holding. So in 2008,
with the honey business already
under way he took the plunge,
so-to-speak, left the meat
industry and spent a fantastic six
months in Canada, ski instructing,
coming back home to teach at
ESCAPE whilst he continued to
build the honey business.
Chris gradually built up the
business by looking for dif-
ferent sites to place his bees.
Something I didn’t know - which
is very logical really - wherever
you place a hive, because of
the different flora and fauna
and even weather, your honey
will always taste different. Chris
prefers all his colonies to be
around the Leeds and Wakefield
area, if possible, however he
does have them as far away as
North Yorkshire. He has about
thirty sites at any one time
with his bees on. The hives are
mainly sited on local farms and
are surrounded by a multitude
of different flowers, hedgerows
and trees, which provide forage
throughout the year for the bees.
The type of farm where Chris’s
hives are is very diverse - from
Dobsons of Rothwell who have
extensive rhubarb and vegetable
crops, to Swillington Organic
Farm who have Stickeys bees in
their walled garden. Other crops
popular for bees are oil seed
rape, borage, buckwheat and
heather. Having bees on site to
pollinate can deliver big benefits
to the farmer increasing his crop
yields and the beauty of it is you
don’t know the hives are there.
Chris will attend to and check
the hives without disturbing the
farmer – most of the time you
wouldn’t know he has been.
Chris even has twenty-four colo-
nies at DRAX power station, they
have a 300 acres site which were
previously barren spoil heaps.
Since the 1970’s they have been
completely reclaimed, replanted
and returned to the natural
landscape. A friend of Chris’s
even grazes his flock of sheep on
there as well.
Chris is passionate about his
bees, their wellbeing, social
structure etc and being eco-
friendly and climate conscious
so strictly no additives are
used which means that
Stickeys Honey is pure honey
– which is better for everyone.
Beekeepers are much like
livestock farmers, they under-
stand their animals exactly.
The bee season typically
runs from May to September.
During this time, Chris is putting
in 12 to 15 hour days with no
days off. Every site needs
visiting for constant checks
and monitoring of the hives.
Once ready, the process of
harvesting and preparing the
honey for market is on-going.
Chris has all the state-of-the-art
equipment needed to ensure
his production is of the highest
quality and the taste of each
variety is defined. The beauty
of Stickeys Honey, is that many
of the sites are single flower
which makes a defined taste
and every year the honey can
taste slightly different.
At the start of every season
there is a finite plan for the
bees and production, however
just like the rest of farming,
Stickeys Honey is beholden to
the might of the British weather
which can throw all plans into
disarray, affect honey yields
and in extreme conditions
lose colonies. Chris must be
a master of organisation and
adaptation.
Chris has now built up pro-
duction where he has enough
stock to supply his markets and
shops all year round. Being
pure honey, it has a high sugar
content which means it has
a long shelf life. During the
winter months, there is a lot of
maintenance to do on hives,
making new ones, checking
on the welfare of the dormant
bees, ensuring they have
enough to eat in the winter.
Stickeys honey is very
popular and sought after and
this was recognised in 2015
when Chris won the Yorkshire
Post Taste award in 2015!
I asked Chris about the future.
By July 2020 he expects to have
some two hundred hives. He
would like to go up to three
hundred hives, beyond that he
would have to significantly invest
and the business would change
so for now he is looking for
another five or six sites, preferably
within the Leeds Wakefield area.
However, as he is now a member
of the Beekeepers’ Association,
he has contacts far and wide and
if any farmer is interested, he can
put them in touch with their local
bee expert.
Chris acquired a lot of
business acumen during his
time in the food industry,
understanding the importance
of cash flow particularly, which
has stood him in good stead to
grow Stickeys steadily and on
a solid footing. Ever keen to
give something back to the bee
industry which he is passionate
about, he plans to start training
new beekeepers this year.
Something rather different
and very interesting, is that
Chris is working with Leeds
University on their ongoing
research project to develop
natural health cures by
harvesting and supplying them
free of charge with propolis.
This is a compound which bees
produce from the sap on nee-
dle-leaved trees or evergreens.
When they combine the sap
with their own discharges
and beeswax, they create the
propolis, which is a sticky,
greenish-brown product used
as a coating to build their hives.
This is another example of how
keen Chris is on nature and the
environment.
With his passion and commit-
ment, Stickeys will continue to
grow and we wish him all the
best.
Visit Stickeys website for a list of
local stockists www.stickeys.
co.uk and do go to the farmers’
markets at Headingley, Oakwood,
Cleckheaton and Leeds Farmers
and Craft Market to see and buy
from the full range.