Bournville Beekeepers was founded by Colin and Ian, who have been friends for more than 35 years and both worked for Cadbury. Colin's passion for beekeeping began at an early age, and as a highly experienced beekeeper, he introduced Ian to the hobby when they shared an allotment in Bournville and placed a colony there. From that moment, Ian was hooked.
Over time, they became increasingly concerned about the challenges facing honeybees and other pollinators, particularly the number of colonies being destroyed during swarming. We decided to focus on rescuing and rehoming these colonies, but quickly found that our own gardens could not accommodate the growing number of bees needing help.
In 2012, Bournville Village Trust kindly provided us with an apiary site at 350 Bournville Lane, and later a second site at Rowheath. In 2015, Simon Beckett of Beckett's Farm provided a third apiary, which we use as a quarantine and assessment site before relocating colonies to our main apiaries.
Creating "Bournville Beekeepers" allowed us to formalise our work, support our activities financially, and expand our educational outreach. We are a not-for-profit organisation, and all income from honey sales and experience days is reinvested into the rescue, care and management of bee colonies.