Light at the end of February

February is always a tease. You think you’re through the worst of winter, you can

almost smell spring, maybe the odd daffodil, but it’s not quite there yet. I might want it to be spring already but if it warms up too early the ladies start flying and use up precious energy and stores.

There is definitely a primal need for light and warmth for us all though!! There’s too little sun at this time of year but beeswax candles bring a glow into my life with their warming honey kissed flames. It’s easy to forget how important wax used to be as a form of light before electricity but it was quite an industry in itself. 

You might not know that bees gather a whacking 6lb of honey to produce 1lb of wax; it is secreted from glands under their abdomen. Precious stuff. We melt down all the waxy scraps left from cutting honeycomb and old comb that we’ve extracted across the year. 

We attended an event at the Wax Chandlers hall a couple of weeks ago; it was a really positive meeting with the Bee Farmers Association looking at commercial beekeeping apprenticeships. Watch this space! The surge in interest in beekeeping has been great but according to the Rowse employee at the event a staggering 90% of the honey bought in the UK is still not produced here! We can only hope that if we have a good summer the bees can get out of their hives and we can have a go at that figure.

The Wax Chandlers have been involved in the candle trade for hundreds of years and according to their website beeswax traders used to be known as cirgers, from the French word for a type of candle – cierge. Anyway, this is my extended lead in to telling you that we’re going to bring the wax and honey trade into the 21^st Century by launching our own online shop for all things London Honey Company!! So you can now get your honey and candles by post! Check out our new little online shop...