Dale
Gibson
Founded in 2007, Bermondsey Street Bees is a sustainable beekeeping practice run by husband and wife team, Dale Gibson and Sarah Wyndham Lewis. In addition to their artisanal honey production and distribution practice, Dale and Sarah spend a great deal of time working alongside governments, businesses and charities to advance the understanding of honeybees and the issues surrounding their survival. A quick pivot in response to Covid brought their business online, and now the duo is selling their honey, hosting pollinator workshops and even putting on honey sommelier sessions over Zoom.
Developing a taste for honey
Beekeeper, Co-Owner of Bermondsey Street Bees
Above
Dale in his beesuit
Photo: Max Miechowski
for The Guardian Labs
Tell us a bit about yourself
22 JUN 2020 I’m Dale Gibson and I’m a professional beekeeper in London, England. I’ve been keeping bees since 2007, and our raw, single-source honeys consistently win top awards.
My wife, Sarah, who is a professional writer and Honey Sommelier, and I run Bermondsey Street Bees as a sustainable beekeeping practice—using education, practical plantings and community participation to broaden awareness of the honeybees’ place in the ecosystem.
Above
Sarah and Dale
Photo: Paul Grand
Above
London Dockland honey
Photo: Andrea Medgyesi
How have the last few weeks or months shaped or impacted your practice?
We have seen little impact on our beekeeping activities—we are still looking after over 80 colonies of bees and participating in the biodiversity conversation via on-line sessions; however, our core commercial activity—selling honey in 5kg buckets to chefs, hotels and restaurants—has disappeared down a rabbit-hole since March! Also, we have also had more than 35 events cancelled over this summer.
In answer to our B2B business being put on the back burner, we have just launched our first ever online retail shopfront.
This was in direct response to many, many requests that we have had from people wanting to buy our honey and lifestyle collection online. Will be fascinating to see whether this demand stays as high post-lockdown!
Above
Dale inspecting rooftop hives
Photo: Paul Grand
It’s empowering to confront enforced change and find yourself flexible and responsive.”
Above
Dale stands at one of his
apiary sites, The Royal Docks
How are you coping at home?
Even though we are categorised as essential workers and were free to go out to care for our bees and deliver honey, even in the darkest days of lockdown, we did inevitably find ourselves at home a lot more. So, yes, we did transfer exercise that we would normally have done at the gym or pilates studio to home routines, but we also gave up drinking alcohol for the duration. It just felt like something quite self-caring to do and amazingly, we really didn't miss it during those 9 dry weeks!
On the business front, we have been keeping in touch with friends and business contacts via Zoom etc. but Sarah has also been teaching online; delivering specialist honey sommelier sessions and planting for pollinator workshops to a wide range of groups including the brigades of some of London’s top restaurants.
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Bermondsey Street Bees’ rooftop apiary
at Goodman’s Fields in the City of London
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Hives on Dale and
Sarah’s own rooftop
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Bermondsey Street Bees’ orchard apiary at
Blake Hall, a stately home in Essex
What has inspired you recently?
It’s been a challenge, in a good way, to have to review every aspect of our business and work out how to turn on a sixpence, swiftly reinventing B2B as B2C. It is empowering to confront enforced change and find yourself flexible and responsive.
Above
The Queen bee surrounded
by worker bees
What are you looking forward to?
It’s too soon to say, “things getting back to normal”, as there is no way of saying what that might be. But it would be great to be able to resume our events schedule, our business collaborations and the more creative side of what we do. Also just to be able to see more of friends and family.
Above
Sarah preaching the gospel of
raw honey at Petersham Nurseries
Above
Every plant produces its own uniquely coloured pollen,
seen here stored in the comb, ready to feed the brood
How can people support you?
We’d love people to visit our website to understand more about the sustainability issues that guide our beekeeping and our approach to supporting urban biodiversity.
On the shopping front, we’d be really happy if they visited our brand new online storefront on for our raw, single-source honeys and our natural skincare as well as the other lifestyle products we design and commission.
Above
Dale with the rooftop hives at Hilton
London Bankside, opposite Tate Modern
Photo: Rowland Roques-O’Neil