All About Us

South Street Honey was founded in 2006 when a childhood fascination in bees turned into a project, that has now turned into a small business. James has been keeping honeybees since 2006 and is at the heart of the hives with the help from his father, Doug, and daughters Emily, Kati and Phebe when they are home. We are still small with 60 hives going into the winter of 2024, Next year by the end of summer we hope to have doubled our hives. We have 3 new apiaries to open which will help us achive this. We are self funding, so the wheel has to start turning to make expansion possible.

We are the hive keepers, the bees need no keeping, they were here a long time before we were.........

This is at the center of James's heart. The bees direct the business. The love of bees and the calmness they bring is what drives his love. You will often find him sat by a hive just watching what is going on with a cuppa. This is one of the best ways of understanding what a colony is doing. We strongly believe in letting the bees be bees, often leaving hives months in between inspections. Some say we have a holistic approach to being hive keepers, for us, this is just how we work. 

James takes pride in passing his passion onto others. Education is key to the survival of all pollunators, with this in mind, James is teaming up with serval learning opportunities to help spread the passion.  

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From soaps to honey jars, every single product we sell is healthy, if not made by James or the team as locally-produced/sourced as possible. We are a family team. Most members are enchanted by the world of honey bees, some if honest are completly freaked out by them, but they still muck in and help!! We are however committed to raising awareness about the importance of this special insect and all pollunators. Browse our site to learn more about our vision, our mission, and our exciting activities.

Out in the real world (well the one that pays the bills at the moment) James is a professional chef working in contract kitchens. You may sometimes see James pop up in supper clubs or pop ups.

We have been very lucky to have been supported on our journey and continue to be supported. The land owners that support us including the Dillington estate, Redhill farms, Duddlestone Farm, and a huge thank you must always go to the neighbours that put up with James and his bees in his back garden! James lives in a terraced two up and two down house in the middle of Taunton, and at times his small garden has as many at a dozen hives in it. 

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A special page for links to our land supportes is below. Have a look and support them if you can. 

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