Meet the Beekeeper

My name is Christine Marshall & I started this Beekeeping journey in 2020. I began with two hives in June of that year, never having worked with bees before, hadn’t even been stung by a bee up to that point! Rest assured that has now changed many times over! My aim? To become Northern Irelands Largest Honey Provider, and to make Hive Products accessible to all. To create new and exciting products that showcase how natures produce truly cant be beaten and to educate on the importance of bees; and maybe in doing so I may even help to inspire a future generation of beekeepers too!

From the beginning I knew I wanted to make this bigger “than just a hive or two” which inspired me to quickly release a range of Beeswax Candles, Beeswax Wraps and Furniture Polish. In 2022 I partnered with two fantastic NI businesses; Dolci Delizie & Granny Shaws Fudge Factory to help bring my dreams of Honey Infused Confectionery to life. Our popular Soft Set Honey & Honey Caramel Sauce was also released. Increasing hive numbers was a priority this year and after deciding traditional wooden hives weren’t all they were hyped up to be, we switched to polystyrene hives.

In 2023 it took several months of trial & error but finally our Hot Honey got the green light & made quite a buzz from its debut. We expanded the range of Honey Confectionery and we attended markets further afield to sell our wares. Investment was put into a Soft Set Creamer allowing us to make larger quantities to keep up with demand. This also meant we have had to tweak our process to suit this change. Beehive numbers increased again this year and all wooden hive parts were fully removed from the Apiaries. Weather held up honey production considerably in 2023 & with wishful thinking of the dry summer to come and big plans we headed into 2024 .

The 2024 beekeeping season has been our hardest to date. We have made strides to perfecting our Soft Set Honey - we wont ever settle for anything less! We travelled across all of Northern Ireland to attend markets to sell our wares, aiming for bigger shows as much as possible, it was our 3rd year attending Balmoral Show. Confident in our products to date we decided to put it to the judges - our products won SIX Awards in 2024. We also won & were nominated for several other awards we never expected to; Entrepreneur of the Year, Young Farmer of the Year & Good Food Ireland to name a few! Unfortunately with inclement weather during the most critical beekeeping periods, plans for expanding production went on hold and priority remained with increasing hive numbers & honey production.