Hello, I’m Lucy…

• Beekeeper near Looe, Cornwall
• Deputy editor of BeeCraft, the UK's best-selling monthly beekeeping magazine
• Native black honey bee conservationist
• Avid gardener and environmentalist

Hello! I’m Lucy, a beekeeper based near Looe in South East Cornwall. 

I finally started keeping bees when I was 22 years old after ten years of dreaming, hoping and biding my time. I first became infatuated with honey bees when I read The Bees by Laline Paull, a dystopian fantasy novel set in a honey bee colony. It opened my eyes to the wonderful world of bees and I have been obsessed ever since.

With a love of honey bees inevitably comes a love of the natural world, and I greatly enjoy providing for pollinators of all shapes and sizes in my garden here in Cornwall. I keep a permaculture kitchen garden - in the hope of improving my self-sufficiency - which is bordered by pollinator-friendly plants and flowers.

As well as keeping colonies of my own honey bees, I volunteer at England's first native black honey bee reserve in the Mount Edgcumbe Country Estate. Here, I support the ongoing breeding programme at the reserve by inspecting hives and fostering colonies that are in need of a little extra TLC.

In 2023, I became the deputy editor of BeeCraft and can be often be found at beekeeping events and conferences across the UK.