About Us

Hog’s Back Bees and Bee Products is a small business that developed out of our beekeeping activities on our smallholding in Ash Green which lies  midway along north side of the Hog’s Back; the North Downs feature that runs from Farnham to Guildford. It is owned and run by a husband and wife team, led by Astrid Bowers and assisted by Stephen Bowers. Our smallholding was developed to grow much of our own food and the foray into beekeeping started as a means to boost pollinators in our area, and hopefully assist in arresting the apparent decline in the honey bee population.

We initially started with two bee colonies and now the total ranges from about 100 -140 depending on the time of the year. We have 3 separate apiaries on our smallholding and over the past 10 years we have been successfully breeding locally raised queens that have been selected for their foraging abilities, temperament, longevity and offspring.

Our mantra has been quality, first and foremost. This means quality in the presentation of our bees, quality in the way that we handle and keep our bees, and quality in the bee products that we sell.

We sell complete colonies, nucs and queens on an as available basis, along with honey and a growing range of other products, and we stand by what we sell. This especially applies to our colonies and nucs which are only sold to new and old beekeepers that can demonstrate the necessary skills to be a responsible and conscientious bee keeper. We, ideally, like to introduce the new beekeeper to their bees prior to purchase and we offer advice on location, hive equipment and ongoing beekeeping activities – see before you buy.

We use a variety of bee-keeping equipment and use a mix of wooden national and polystyrene hives. Most of our nucs are polystyrene and we have found these to be very effective in our apiaries. We are open to new methods and ideas and can build bespoke and prototype equipment in our own workshop.

 

Biography Astrid Bowers-Veenman

Astrid is a native of the Netherlands and moved to the UK in 1998 and spent much of her initial working life in the drinks trade, both in the Netherlands and in the UK, before becoming involved in management training within Allied Domeq and later with her own business. In 2015 Astrid became a full time bee keeper and has amassed a large following on her Facebook site and writes regularly for bee keeping news-letters. Astrid has a wealth of knowledge and experience in bee keeping matters and has developed her own ethical means of beekeeping. Although we are bee farmers we place ethical bee keeping highest as our highest priority and forsake honey yield for bee welfare. As a result our winter losses are negligible and our bees mainly overwinter on their own honey stores.

Astrid is also a regular public speaker and gives talks to clubs and associations.

Stephen Bowers Biography

Stephen Bowers is a native of the UK and is a petroleum chemist by training and has worked in the oil and petrochemical business for 46 years, and now operates his own consulting business from home. Stephen is Astrid’s right hand man and does most of the other activities that are necessary to run a bee farm. We run about 120-140 colonies and there is constant maintenance of the large number of hive parts. He also does much of the frame building which typically runs to 2500-3000 per year. We maintain a large inventory of bee frames, wax, hive boxes, roofs and floors. Over the years we have introduced new methods of construction of hives, as well a highly insulated crown board for overwintering and durable PVC crown boards. Apart form bee keeping Stephen is a CPSA qualified clay shooting instructor and used to fly light aircraft and helicopters.