About Us

Lune Valley Beekeepers is a charitable incorporated organisation with members around the Lune and Lancaster area. The bee club’s objectives are to:

1. Promote the craft of keeping of honey bees
2. Provide education and practical support to enhance the standard of beekeeping husbandry
3. Provide education and practical support to enhance the quantity and quality of forage available to honey bees and other pollinators
4. Raise public awareness of the importance of honey bees to the environment and the economy.

We believe in a responsible style of beekeeping that:

• Treats the bee colony as a complete organism
• Minimises intrusions into the colony
• Allows the bees’ own swarming impulses to determine reproduction
• Overwinters colonies on their own honey
• Maintains colony density at a level appropriate to local forage conditions
• Does not involve the use of chemicals.

Whilst these principles can be applied using almost any type of hive, we promote the use of our own unique and proven design of long hives. These offer all the flexibility of conventional vertical beehives without the need for heavy lifting. This permits greater hive insulation – preserving energy within the hive – and enables access for those in wheelchairs and with back issues that prevent heavy lifting.

We are committed to making the world a better place for pollinators by:

• Creating more pollinator-friendly habitats
• By discouraging the use of ‘pesticides’
• Planting and encouraging native, flowering plants
• Encouraging beekeepers to adopt more ‘nature-friendly’ methods
• Promoting the use of native, or near-native bees, and discouraging imports.

Our current Trustees are:

An Introduction to Lune Valley Beekeepers

Whilst we have a UK wide membership, our local members are mainly from an area centred in the Lancaster, Kendal and Preston areas.