Kingston Vale Leisure Gardeners' Association
an allotment community growing together for over 80 years
Our beehives are located in the heart of Kingston Vale, close to Kingston Vale Allotments.
Our honeybees forage in the gardens of the Vale, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park and Kingston Vale Allotments, collecting Pollen and Nectar from flowering plants which they then take back to their hive to feed young bees and to make delicious honey.
Honeybees are vitally important pollinators, responsible for pollinating about one third of the food we eat each day. We are unlikely to starve if there were no bees, but we would have a very poor and boring diet.
Take a look on the internet to see what plants bees pollinate (fruit / vegetables / seeds / nuts).
We take great care to look after these highly intelligent, precious and struggling creatures.
Bees are under constant threat from disease and the Varroa Mite.
The Varroa Mite arrived in the UK from Asia about 10 years ago, they are now present in every beehive in the country.
We use non chemical methods to keep these mite numbers to a minimum, but it is a constant battle.
More recently the Asian Hornet has invaded our shores, these creatures can destroy a colony of thousands of bees within a matter of hours.
The public are being encouraged to look out for these hornets (different from the European Hornet, native to the UK) and report sightings to the appropriate authorities via this link
Our bees reward us with the most delicious Kingston Vale Honey which we sell locally.
Every two years we get the bees to build new honeycomb which helps reduce Mite numbers and protect against disease. We clean the old beeswax, filter it, melt it, and then make lovely Pure Beeswax Candles which we also sell.
To encourage less use of plastic and clingfilm, we have recently been making Pure Beeswax Wraps from the wax we harvest from our hives. These wraps are reusable and help preserve the freshness of food (sandwiches, fruit, cheese etc.). These we also sell locally.
Selling honey, candles and wraps, helps towards the cost of replacing equipment and preventative treatments for our bees, we don’t sell for profit.
If you wish to know more about beekeeping or are interested in purchasing any of our products, please get in touch.
Barry and Tom are members of the British Beekeepers Association.
They can be contacted via their website www.valebees.com or email