Meet the Maker Helena Jackson Beekeeper

I’m classed as a youngster in the beekeeping fraternity, which, when you’re in your 40s, is quite nice. But this is more a reflection of the average age of a beekeeper, and highlights that we need to get a broader range of ages involved to keep the art and traditions going, while being progressive.

- Catherine Coyle

I’m classed as a youngster in the beekeeping fraternity, which, when you’re in your 40s, is quite nice. But this is more a reflection of the average age of a beekeeper, and highlights that we need to get a broader range of ages involved to keep the art and traditions going, while being progressive.

I’m a Lancastrian by birth. I was born in Bury and moved up to Scotland in my late 20s. I didn’t know any beekeepers when I was growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, but I’ve always been an avid gardener and interested in environmental issues and ecology.

A trip to Ayr Flower Show in August 2011 is where my beekeeping journey began. Ayr & District Beekeepers have a mobile apiary and invite the general public to get up close with a beehive and a colony of bees, while talking them through the main aspects of honeybees and beekeeping. I was hooked from that point, and soon after I took a beginners’ course. I still credit the enthusiastic and enigmatic Phil McAnespie for my birth as a beekeeper.