2024 Honey farms award

The winner of this year’s most prestigious annual award for Somerset beekeepers is Lionel Horler from Castle Cary.
He received the West Country Honey Farms Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the craft from previous winner, Stewart Gould, at the county’s annual meeting.
Lionel, who has been keeping bees for nearly 50 years, led a team from the South East branch to set up an apiary at Hook Valley Solar Park on the outskirts of Wincanton.
What was once a muddy and disused corner of the site has been transformed into a thriving apiary accommodating 12 colonies and a building where members can meet. Opened in summer 2021, the apiary has already been used for training sessions and raising new colonies for those completing their beginners’ course. 
Lionel found national fame when he appeared alongside fellow Somerset resident Sarah Beeney collecting and hive a swarm for her tv series about living in the country.
As well as being an active swarm collector, he also heads the branch’s Asian hornet team and is actively recruiting more members and raising the profile of the threat the yellow-legged hornets pose to honey bees and pollinators.
Longstanding branch member Bob Jones added: “I have known Lionel since he first came to this area and found him unfailingly helpful, especially with those new to beekeeping, patient, and always ready to give freely of his time.
"Lionel is a lynch-pin in the bee tent at the Bath and West Show, runs the beginners' course year after year, and keeps himself forever available whenever there is cry for help from anyone in our beekeeping fraternity. I can think of no-one more deserving.”