Where to Buy Local Honey 32


Our Honey For Sale

Looking to find where you can buy honey produced locally within the South East Surrey area and its borders?

In addition to honey produced by bees from the Reigate Beekeepers Divisions apiaries being available to buy, some of our members also have honey produced by their own bees available for sale from village stores, market stalls, Summer fetes and shows.

Although availability from a particular apiary or individual beekeeper at any given time can be difficult to predict or ensure, we can usually offer a selection to choose from the region.

Members Honey

For listings of Members offering to sell their honey read Members Honey For Sale

2020 was a mixed year for our bees. The Covid-19 Lockdowns prevented our Training Apiary being subjected to trainees ‘attentions’ and the opportunity was taken to establish good queens in all the colonies at the expense of attempting to maximise honey yield. Elsewhere our Buckland and Brockham apiaries produced good yields for a late spring/early summer harvest, followed by good yields from the late summer harvest, enabling us to rebuild honey stocks. The jury is still out on how our bees will have have faired this winter. But locally, higher than usual colony losses are being reported by many beekeepers. So unless surviving colonies can built up and split to replace the losses, locally produced honey may be a little more difficult to come by during 2021.

Retail Outlets 

Reigate Beekeepers is suppling our Reigate Beekeepers Surrey Honey (subject to availability) to a few retail outlets across the Mole Valley and Reigate & Banstead districts of Surrey.

  • Buckland: 

    • Buckland Nursery

      • Reigate Road (Main A25), Buckland, Surrey RH2 9RE

  • Dorking:

    • Two Many Cooks (Coffee Shop)

      • No 32 South Street, Dorking, Surrey RH4 2HQ 

    •  

  • Reigate:

    • Robert & Edwards (Butchers)

      • 77 High Street, Reigate, RH2 9AH

  • Smallfield :

    • James A Harris & Son Quality Butchers

      • 1, The Parade, Redehall Road, Smallfield, Surrey RH6 9PY 

Local Fairs

For a listing of Local Fairs, Fetes and Show Events that we will be attending during the summer months, click here. This list will be being built up as circumstances allow. 

Previous venues attended included …

... at the Outwood Village Show - with notable customer
… at the Outwood Village Show – with notable customer
... at our own Honey Show
… at our own Honey Show
... at the Norbury Park Sawmill open day
… at the Norbury Park Sawmill open day

32 comments

  1. A friend asked me if my Brockham apiary honey (Reigate Beekeepers) was raw. I can’t tell because the label tells you nothing about how it has been processed. Why does the labelling not say? And why is there no standard which tells you these things across all Honeys?

    Reply

    • Dear Karen,
      Honey labelled for sale must carry one of the following reserved words that describe the product … Honey, Blossom Honey, Nectar Honey, Honeydew Honey, Comb Honey, Chunk Honey, Cut Comb in Honey, Drained Honey, Extracted Honey, Pressed Honey, Filtered Honey and Baker’s Honey. If the predominant nectar source is known the reserved word can be prefixed with the source e.g. heather honey.
      We prefix the simple term Honey with Surrey because all our bees forage within the county boundaries.
      It’s notable that raw, organic, unfiltered or unheated are not reserved words and yet are regularly found on honey labels, sometimes immediately preceding the word ‘honey’.
      A typical description of ‘Raw Honey’ is ”honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling, or straining; and that has not been heated above 45 degrees Centigrade during production or storage; or pasteurised” This description is equally valid for ‘Honey’.
      These are the same criteria by which Reigate Beekeepers, our members and most amateur beekeepers in general, would naturally follow in providing jars of ‘Honey’ for themselves and for sale to the public.

      Reply

  2. Good evening. I am on the committee for the all saints church summer fair in merstham and we would love a stall selling local produce. I thought honey etc would be amazing! It is on Sunday 9th June
    We had approx 1000 people attend last year.
    Can you please let me know if there is something you would be interested in. Local produce would be extremely beneficial to the community.

    Reply

  4. I have been suffering really badly with hayfever and someone suggested local honey may help my immune system to get used to the nearby pollen strains. Would anyone be able to clarify this for me? And if this is correct, I live in Horley so am interested if there is any available as close as possible. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Dear Jeanette,
      It is often said and claimed that ‘local’ honey helps hayfever sufferers. A possible explanation may be that commercially processed honey can have had most or all traces of pollen, that would have been in their bulk sources of honey, filtered out.
      Whereas, hobby beekeepers will typically only pass their bees honey through a fairly course sieve to remove debris and pieces of wax from the honey.
      In this sense, all of our beekeepers honey’s could be considered more ‘natural’ and ‘whole’ than commercially processed honey.
      Visit our ‘Members Honey for Sale’ page to locate and contact one of our Reigate Beekeepers with honey for sale nearest to where you live.

      Reply

    • I also suffer badly with Hayfever & like Jeannette I was using the website to find sources of honey in Horley in the belief it may help with local pollen sources. However the Horley contact has not been updated, and states honey – not available since 2016?

      Reply

      • Dear David,
        We are limited by which of our members happen to have surplus honey to offer to sell and how and where they prefer to do so.
        I would say that the significance of ‘Local’ Honey can be taken a little too literally by the public.
        The most significant difference between honey offered for direct sale by individual beekeepers and other sources will be the absence of fine filtering & processing of the honey or of blending with other sources.
        Also, the overall range of flora and therefore foraging opportunities for bees will not be varying too greatly across the region within which all our beekeepers manage their hives.
        Hence I would suggest that whilst the proportions of different nectar sources gathered by the bees will vary, both seasonally and across the region, the overall pallet of nectar sources available throughout the region and seasons will be broad.
        Do try some honey from the next nearest beekeeper. And also consider that bees will forage up to 3 miles distant from their hive. So the bees you hopefully see in your own garden may well be visiting from some way off!

    • Whilst Reigate Beekeepers used to operate a stall at the Redhill Market each month, we no longer do so. However, one or two of our members do continue to independently operate a Honey Sales stall at the market.
      Unfortunately, we are not certain of which day of the week or which weeks each month they attend.

      Reply

  6. I have been buying and enjoying V&C Gallo Meadvale Honey for a couple of years, buying from the local Butchers. I particularly like it when it is becoming granulated (as opposed to the more creamy version), but for some time I have only been able to buy it runny. I understand the these will eventually set, but those I have are not showing much sign of it! Is it possible to buy the set honey, maybe direct as I live very close to the address on the jar?

    Reply

    • Hi Jon,
      Not many of the Butcher’s customers want anything other than the clear honey, and therefore that is all I supply them with. I certainly have honey that has set, and arrange for a direct email to be sent so you know how to contact me (although the address on the label would work too).
      Vince

      Reply

      • Hi Vince,
        Many thanks for the response, I am very local to you, so will pop round and knock on your door!
        Cheers
        Jon

    • Hi Steve,
      A number of our beekeepers are selling their own honey either directly ‘at the door’ or through their local village stores … see our ‘Members Honey for Sale’ page (under the ‘Honey’ menu tab) for listings & availablity.
      We are also attending a number of local village fetes during the summer … see our ‘Local Shows’ page (under the ‘Events’ menu tab) to find the nearest and next.
      RichardB

      Reply

  8. Hi,
    I’m looking for beekeepers who may be interested in utilising some land in an apple orchard to keep beehives and look after them.
    I have no hives currently and have no idea what it required I just want to help the bee population if possible.

    Reply

    • Thank you for your enquiry and kind offer. In the first instance, do please read the information we provide in either the ‘Out-Apiaries…Hives in Your Garden’ (front page post), or the ‘Our Hive in Your Garden?’ page under the COMMUNITY menu tab. An on-line contact form can then be submitted to our Out-Apiaries coordinator with some basic details about the site you are suggesting ..we can then better advise you about its suitability.
      Thank you.

      Reply

      • Dear Thomas,
        For security and confidentiality purposes, we do not publicise either our clubs apiary site locations or the addresses of individual members who offer their honey for sale directly, principally throughout the Reigate & Banstead and Mole Valley districts of Surrey.
        For details of where we, as Reigate Beekeepers Division, are attending shows and offering our club honey for sale; please go to our ‘Local Shows’ page, under the ‘Events’ menu tab.
        For a list of individual member beekeepers who are offering their own honey for sale, go to the ‘Members Honey For Sale’ page, under the ‘Honey’ menu tab, where the members are listed by general location within Surrey.

    • Hi Gregory,
      That would be very welcome, thanks.
      Our next ‘public engagements’ where we will have honey for sale from our own apiaries are listed on the Local Shows page, under the EVENTS menu tab. Otherwise one of our member beekeepers may be contacted via the Members Honey for Sale page under the HONEY menu tab.

      Reply

  10. Hello, I’m looking to buy some local as possible honey, I live in Horley. Could you please advise me as to where the best place to buy some.
    Thank you

    Reply

    • Hi Ashleigh,
      We have now just published a listing of our beekeepers who are currently willing and able to offer their products for direct or indirect (via local stores) sale. We hope you and many others find this useful. Look for ‘Members Honey For Sale’
      Richard

      Reply

  11. Dear Sir/Madam,

    I live in Weybridge, where can I buy honey direct from a bee keeper on a regular basis nearby please?

    Yours sincerely

    Chris Warman

    Reply

    • Thank you for your enquiry Sue.
      Since we have regrettably withdrawn from offering both Reigate Beekeepers’ and our Members honey at the Redhill and previously the Reigate Farmers Markets, we are aware that many of our regular customers to those markets will be disappointed.
      In response, we are in the process of compiling a list of other local markets, village shops and delicatessens through which some our Members may regularly (or occasionally) offer their Honey for sale. We are also looking to provide a list of our Members who can sell their products directly ‘from their door’. All of which will necessarily be subject to availability.
      Please bear with us while we ‘enrol’ as many participating members as practical to represent as wide a geographical area of our membership as possible, to avoid enquiring public like yourself all descending on a few.
      Watch this space.
      Meanwhile, do refer to the ‘Local Shows’ listing for details of where Reigate Beekeepers WILL be selling Honey this summer, and of course, visit our Honey Show in Reigate on the 10th October.

      Reply

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