The popular university honey is back on sale in campus outlets, just in time for Christmas! The honey is locally sourced with minimal waste, making it a sustainable purchase. The profits made from the honey are reinvested into our sustainable projects for the university.
The honey comes from beehives located on land owned by the university. There are around 70 bee colonies in total, each housing tens of thousands of honeybees. The beehives are managed on the university’s behalf by professional bee farmer, Parks Apiaries, and are located at King’s Meadow Campus in Lenton and at Bunny Park – arable farmland south of Nottingham used for a variety of university research.
The flavour and colour of the two varieties reflect the different landscape settings. The King’s Meadow honey is predominantly multi-floral, with bees foraging in the nearby King’s Meadow local nature reserve, University Park and the city centre, and potentially on farmland by the University’s Riverside Sports Complex – as honeybees can travel up to several miles in search of food.
Honeybees at Bunny Park collect nectar from crops such as field bean, but also from trees such as horse chestnut, lime and hawthorn.
The bees help increase pollination enhancing biodiversity and once the honey is extracted, it is bottled in its raw state. It’s simply filtered through a nylon mesh, so keeps its valuable enzymes with pollens.
The university honey is on sale in the below campus outlets, for £5:
- Spar shop, The Exchange, Jubilee Campus
- Spar shop, Portland Building, University Park
- Hipps cafe, Medical School
- Costcutter shop, Sutton Bonington
- Portland Clothing Co, Portland Building, University Park
- Trent cafe, Trent Building, University Park
- Coates Café, Coates building, University Park
To find out more about encouraging wild bees into your garden, to help address concerns about declining bee populations and the impact on crop pollination and food security, take a look at The Wildlife Trust’s tips.
Posted on Friday 2nd December 2022