We are delighted to be working in partnership with Beefayre, a family-run business that is passionate about bee conservation and a lending a helping hand to nature.
Their story begins in Transylvania, where their founder, Sharon, visited beekeepers and started learning about this ancient tradition. In the beautiful, clean mountain air the bees thrived on the plethora of wildflowers that grew on the hillsides. This visit inspired her to found Beefayre, with the aim of conserving bees. Together with her son and a talented team, Sharon has developed a range of luxurious well-being products that will pamper you and conserve the environment.

All the charming illustrations featured on beefayre's products are hand-drawn by Sharon, inspired by the flowers and insects around her. She created an exclusive illustration for our gift boxes, shown below, depicting the wonderful flora and fauna you may find in your garden.

Nature is at the heart of Beefayre's ethos, with 3% of their profits donated to bee research and conservation, as well as creating products that are free from parabens and vegan-friendly.
Beefayre's products are handmade in England and use the very highest quality natural ingredients, which are sustainably sourced.


These lovely gift boxes feature Sharon's exclusive illustration on both the box itself and the gift card. They also include a packet of wildflower seeds for you to create your own haven for bees. The votive candle is made with 100% natural plant wax for a longer burn time, which is hand-poured into the recycled glass holder. The glass is printed with a lovely flower and bee design, making an ideal tea light holder or water glass once you have used the candle. Both boxes also include luxurious organic soaps.

The luxurious scent of orange and jasmine will invigorate you for the day ahead! Both the body wash and lotion are SLS (sodium laureth sulphate) free and contain moisturising cocoa butter. The body lotion also includes aloe vera and sweet almond oil for beautifully soft skin.
Inspired by nature, this collection of pure indulgence is the perfect way to treat yourself or a loved one!

10 BRILLIANT BEE FACTS:

  1. They have been on the planet for more than 30 million years.
  2. They fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second.
  3. They have a special way of communicating with the rest of the hive where the best sources of food are. It's called a waggle dance, which involves moving in a figure-of-eight whilst waggling her body to indicate the direction of the food source (it's also the inspiration behind the print on the glass candle holder).
  4. Their brains age backwards if they take on a role that is normally done by a younger bee. Researchers believe this discovery can help us to understand how to slow the onset of dementia.
  5. They can recognise faces (including humans), and it might help computer scientists improve facial recognition technology.
  6. They have personalities. Honeybees have been shown to exhibit signs of laziness, timidity and thrill-seeking, as well as pessimism.
  7. They are incredibly efficient, working out the shortest route between flowers, something that other animals, and even computers, struggle with.
  8. A honeycomb has been mathematically proven to be the most efficient structure in nature, as it uses the least amount of wax and features perfect hexagons.
  9. Bees are the only insect in the world that make food that we can eat. Honey contains all of the substances needed to sustain life, including enzymes, water, minerals and vitamins.
  10. Eating honey can help you become more clever. It is the only food to contain pinocembrin, an antioxidant that improves brain function. Make sure your honey is sustainably sourced!

 
"Every third bite of food you take, thank a bee or other pollinator." E.O. Wilson
These amazing creatures face a number of different threats, including lack of habitat (over 97% of their grassland habitat has been destroyed within the last 60 years) and malnutrition due to intensive farming practices as well as disease and parasites such as the Varroa mite. Bees are responsible for pollinating one-third of all the plants we eat (75% of all the crops we eat are pollinated by bees), and it takes 1100 bees to make 1kg of honey by visiting 4 million flowers! Without bees, we would struggle to grow food, so what can you do to help?
How you can help bees:

  • Buying Beefayre's products, as 3% of their profits are donated to bee conservation and research.
  • Planting a variety of flowers, with different shapes, colours and scents. Lavender, wildflowers and herb gardens are a favourite with bees (blue and mauve flowers are the most nutritious).
  • Providing a source of water in the summer. Collecting pollen is thirsty work! Add marbles to a bowl of water so the bees have somewhere to land and don't drown.
  • Make sure plants you buy have not been treated with insecticides as these will affect your existing garden and harm the bees. Avoid the use of pesticides for the same reasons.
  • Leave an area of your garden to grow wild, as this encourages more bees.

 
"If we and the rest of the back-boned animals were to disappear overnight, the rest of the world would get on pretty well. But if the invertebrates were to disappear, the world’s ecosystems would collapse."             Sir David Attenborough
 
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Bee facts obtained from: www.beefayre.com, www.mentalfloss.com and www.bees4kids.org.uk