Our Story
The Early Days
Re-wind to 2015, starting out whilst Suzie was completing a PhD in molecular nutrition an an idea was born out of a passion for bees, Champagne, and honey.
Luke kept bees as a hobby, as he did do since around the age of 10 and Suzie quickly got the beekeeping bug when they met back in 2011.
Combining Suzie’s science background and their joint love of bees, champagne and honey, an idea was formed and many trials followed to see if you could make the bee equivalent of Champagne!
The Bees | Honey and Sparkling Mead
Producing honey was always the cornerstone of what Northumberland Honey Co did, but as demand for Sparkling Mead increased, the honey produced has been increasingly diverted towards Sparkling Mead.
This enabled increase in the number of colonies kept, and since 2018 colony numbers have increased from around 40 colonies to a present day number in excess of 200. With a focus on breeding sustainable bees that survive better!
We are all about safeguarding the future of the honey bee, increasing their sustainability and number. The great support received for our bees, pure natural honey and range beeswax candles and of course Sparkling Mead has meant that we have been able to signficantly increase bee numbers at a rate of around 3,000 bees for every bottle of Sparkling Mead consumed!
Something worth shouting about!
Research and Development
To get to where Northumberland Honey Co is today has taken plenty of research, plenty of product development. Starting out in the early days Suzie and Luke spent time in Champagne learning the méthode tradionnelle but also travelled to the USA, where mead is very popular and meaderies aplenty, to learn about making mead on a commercial scale.
Present Day
Fast forward to 2024 we are now 9 years established. Over the years there have been many changes, all with a view to helping to increase bee numbers, efficiency and simply doing things better wherever we can. From making our energy use more efficient, to reducing our carbon footprint and being as green as possible. With an aim of giving more back to the environment than is taken away.
As a young family business we feel strongly about leaving our environment in a better condition for our children and not worse. In producing bees and related products we hope to be in a perfect position to be able to help build back nature whilst producing amazing natural products that are so needed in a world of artifical chemical products.
Our Family History
Although Northumberland Honey Company was established back in 2015, beekeeping has been in Luke and Suzie’s family for generations on both sides. Going back as far as the early 1900s with Luke’s grandad, pictured here housing a swarm of bees in a traditional WBC hive in the family orchard.
It gives a great sense of pride to be able to continue the family tradition and pass these vital skills onto the next generation.
Northumberland Honey Company is very much a family business. With husband and wife Luke and Suzie at the helm, sons Archie and Jasper who although still school aged, very much have their own beesuits and involvement in the business!
With the Hutch Family the future of beekeeing at Northumberland Honey Co will be in great hands.
Bee Myths and Legend: Did you know bees are also thought to be messengers from this life to the next, as much as we talk to the bees, we do wonder what the bees could tell us from generations gone by!
Hutch Family Honey
Luke and Suzie Hutchinson with their boys Archie and Jasper are effectionatlly known as the Hutch Family.
This is where the name Hutch Family Honey has come from which you’ll increasingly see on our products. The name highlights the family nature of the business, and that from the ground up we are involved every day in every aspect of the business, whether that be Luke and Suzie out in the field raising queen bees, through to jarring honey or Suzie developing new formulations for our growing range of cosmetics.
Hutch Family Honey stands for provenance, quality, family, and care at every stage.