The teen beekeeper busy with his own bee business

A 17-year-old beekeeper says he took up the hobby after discovering his grandmother's old bee equipment in the family shed and has now turned it into a business.

Harry, from Clyst Hydon in Devon, was 12 when he discovered the forgotten beekeeping boxes, a beekeeping suit and old jars of honey tucked away.

He immediately asked his parents if he could take up the hobby and five years on, he now has about 80 hives and sells bees to other keepers.

The teenager, who is set to attend the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers in Belfast this week, believes it is a misconception that beekeeping is only for the older generation.

"My grandmother passed away in 2016 and we have a lot of old barns," Harry, who gives bee tours on his family farm, told BBC Radio Devon.

"I went into one of these old sheds when I was about 12 and I found all this old bee equipment - frames, a foundation, a few old beekeeping boxes, a pre-historic beekeeping suit, a lot of old honey jars and I sort of thought how hard can it be to keep bees?"

He adds: "I didn't really think it would turn into anything business-like. It was just a hobby to start with."

Harry, who has always taken an interest in nature but knew nothing about beekeeping at first, started with a couple of hives and continued collecting them as his interest grew and now runs his business Harry's Honey Bees.

Asked what it is about bees he likes so much, he says: "I think it's how they're all very synchronised, they all work together.

"It's called a super organism because every single bee inside the colony - and there are about 60,000 of them - has a job to do.

Harry says he looks forward to meeting other like-minded youngsters in Belfast.

"I think there's a mindset that it's once you're retired you have a couple of beehives in the back of your garden," he says.

"I sort of feel like I'm proof of how you can keep bees from any age."

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