Brighton residents can now enter their postcode to see how close they live to the apiary behind a new local honey brand, and whether flowers in their garden could have contributed nectar to this season’s harvests.
The Brighton Beekeeper, founded by Brighton beekeeper Jack Lockyer, produces honey from six colonies kept in his family garden in BN1. Brighton is where the bees live, forage and make their honey, not simply where the jars are bottled or sold.
Jack created the brand to make honey with clear Brighton provenance readily available to local residents, while giving them a closer connection with the landscape behind each jar.
Its new Forage Finder turns “local” from a word on the label into something residents can see for themselves. After entering their postcode, they can see how close their home is to the apiary producing the honey. A jar could have been made with nectar gathered from blossom on their street, lavender in a nearby garden or flowers growing outside their own home.
“Local should mean more than putting Brighton on a label,” said Jack. “Our bees live here, forage across the city and make their honey here. The Forage Finder lets Brighton residents see just how close they are to the apiary behind each jar, and whether their own garden could have played a part in this season’s harvests.”
University of Sussex researchers decoding waggle dances from three other Brighton hives found mean monthly foraging distances of 0.5 to 1.2 km, with monthly means of 78 to 92 per cent of foraging within the surrounding urban area.
The findings underline the role Brighton’s gardens and green spaces can play in urban honey production. Residents can buy honey made by colonies living among the same flowering landscape they see outside their own homes.
The Brighton Beekeeper keeps its Spring Harvest 2026 and Summer Harvest 2026 honeys separate, allowing each to retain the character of what was flowering around the city at that point in the season. The spring honey is smooth and gently floral, while the summer harvest is fuller and more aromatic, with a warm, slightly peppery finish. Both are unpasteurised, gently strained, filled and numbered by hand in Brighton.
The hives are closely woven into family life. Jack’s nine-year-old daughter Sofia joins him for hive inspections in her bright pink bee suit.
Because the apiary is in a residential setting, Jack prioritises queens from lines selected for calm temperament, including Buckfast stock, and manages the colonies carefully to minimise disturbance to neighbours.
The launch also marks the beginning of a broader Brighton beekeeping initiative. The Brighton Beekeeper is developing a hosted mini-apiary programme for suitable pub gardens, venues and privately managed green spaces around the city.
Under the programme, hosts will provide a home for a small apiary while Jack manages the colonies. The aim is to create a carefully managed network of Brighton apiaries and give smaller landowners and local organisations a role in producing honey with a clear connection to the city.
“The family garden is where The Brighton Beekeeper began, but the ambition is bigger than one garden,” Jack said. “Brighton has many smaller green spaces that could provide excellent homes for well-managed bees. A pub, venue or landowner could become part of a local honey story without needing to become a beekeeper.”
The Brighton Beekeeper is also developing a skincare and grooming range using pure cappings beeswax recovered during the honey uncapping process. The first products in development are lip balm, body butter and beard balm. The range is being created around ingredient quality and the complete experience of using each product, including texture, scent, packaging and everyday usability.
The products will launch separately after testing and completion of the required cosmetic safety assessments.
The Brighton Beekeeper’s Spring Harvest 2026 and Summer Harvest 2026 Raw Brighton Honey are available now in 275 g jars for £7.50. Residents can order directly and use the Forage Finder at thebrightonbeekeeper.co.uk.
