This has been, by far, the best summer we’ve had for honey flow — better than the last two years combined, in my experience out at the hives. As a beekeeper-led meadery, that matters more to us than almost anything else. It’s the whole reason we exist: no bees, no honey, no mead.

Every jar of honey and every bottle we produce starts in the same place — with healthy bees doing what they do best. So when a summer like this one comes along, with a long, strong nectar flow, it’s genuinely something to celebrate.
But it hasn’t been without its challenges. The extreme heat we’ve seen this year has a real downside for the bees: it brings the flowering season to an early close. Flowers die back sooner than usual, and that puts pressure on colonies just when they should still be building up their stores.

We’ve been fortunate on a couple of fronts. All of our apiaries — across Wicklow, Kiladoon, and Inishturk — have good access to water, which is essential for bees in hot weather. They use it not just to drink, but to cool the hive itself, carrying water back and fanning it to regulate the temperature inside. We’ve also made sure every one of our locations has natural shade from trees. That takes real pressure off the colonies. Bees are normally excellent at regulating heat within the hive, but in extreme conditions, just like us, they struggle — and every bit of shade helps.

On Inishturk, our native Irish honey bee sanctuary is only in its first year, and it’s already doing really well. The colonies there are stable, producing honey, and settling in nicely. We’re hopeful — cautiously so — that they’ll overwinter successfully, which would be a huge milestone for the sanctuary and for the conservation of the native Irish honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, more broadly.

It’s been a summer of real contrasts: a bumper nectar flow, but real heat stress on the bees. We’re doing everything we can to support them through both. Because at the end of the day, it always comes back to the same simple truth — no bees, no honey, no mead.