J Hewit & Daughters | The Hewits Hive
We’ve got a new member of the Hewits family - she’s rather small, has quite a lot of employees, and definitely doesn’t answer emails.
Meet Janet, the Queen of our very own sponsored beehive, looked after for us by Kin Bees.
We decided to sponsor a hive because bees are a vital part of the countryside around us. They spend their days busily moving from flower to flower, helping plants and crops along the way. The farms where the Kin Bees apiaries are located have experienced a near 15% increase in crop yields — so Janet and the girls are clearly pulling their weight!
Why Janet?
There’s a little bit of family history behind the name of our hive & our Queen.
The J in J Hewit & Sons goes all the way back to Janet Hewit, who took over the business when our founder, her husband Thomas Hewit, died in the late 1840's. Since then, the company has remained in the family, passing from one generation to the next.
But while women have always been part of the Hewits family, it has been the men who have been at the forefront of the business since. So, we thought it was time for a small change.
Our hive is proudly branded J Hewit & Daughters, with Janet being our first Queen Bee. She isn't going to be the only one represented, as we're going to be naming the Queen's in our hive after the women of the family, past & present, giving them a place in the story too.
It feels particularly fitting that Janet, who was herself running the business all those years ago, is now back at the head of things. Although, to be fair, she's got considerably more workers now than she did when she started.
From our hive, to your workbench
There's another reason we're particularly excited about sponsoring a hive.
As part of our sponsorship, we'll be able to offer beeswax from the Hewits hive to bookbinders, leatherworkers, and other craftspeople to use.
Beeswax has long been a favourite in the workshop, particularly for waxing thread before sewing. It makes thread easier to handle and helps stop it becoming quite so determined to tie itself in knots.
Something made by our bees can eventually become part of something made by you, and we rather like the sound of that.
Supporting the bees around us
By supporting Kin Bees, we're helping to look after a colony of bees and supporting the work Gael does with local farms and the surrounding environment. Without the vital support that hive sponsorship brings, it’d be a harder task for Gael to properly support all of the apiaries.
The sponsorship money goes towards treatments for the bees, the planting of wildflower meadows near the hives, and covers costs for capturing and rehoming rogue bee swarms in the area.
The fact we're getting to put some of what the bees produce back into the hands of the craftspeople we work with every day was an unexpected bonus!
It's a small connection between the countryside, the hive and the workshop — and one we're very happy to be part of.
So here's to Janet, her 30,000 workers, and hopefully, many busy summers to come.
Welcome to the family, Janet. 🐝