Where we source our honey

Get the buzz on our top-quality honey. Learn more about the millions of honeybees working on M&S Select Farms and how we're working to protect wild pollinators.

Writer

M&S Food

Honeycomb being drizzled onto black plate

Pollinators, such as bees, are vital in producing our food. Wild bees, including bumblebees, are also in decline. We're working to protect wild pollinators as well as introducing millions of honeybees to our British M&S Select Farms to make some very special honey. Follow the story of these very busy bees, meet our beekeeper, and try our sweet and sticky honey recipe ideas.

Discover our honey

British honeybees

Back in 2021, we put more than 600 beehives - which are home to 30 million bees - on 25 British M&S Select Farms. This operation has now grown to more than 1,000 beehives across 30 British M&S Select Farms. These busy bees are helping us produce our exclusive Collection Single Apiary Select Farm British Honey. Because we are harvesting from different farms, where the bees have foraged on everything from cherry trees to courgettes, the honey comes in lots of different colours and unique flavours. By introducing British honeybees to M&S Select Farms, we're supporting local British honey production and our Select Farms to pollinate their crops.

M&S Collection honey

Where we source our honey

Experienced beekeeper David Wainwright has been producing top- quality honey for M&S for more than 10 years. After visiting the M&S Select Farms, David and his teams placed their cedar wood beehives - many of which date back to the 1930s - in carefully chosen locations, ensuring they have plenty of shelter and sources of nectar nearby. “The farms grow crops that benefit from the bees, including courgettes, apples, berries, beans and more. The farmers get a higher yield and better quality since the plants will have been properly pollinated,” says David.

More about M&S Select Farms

How is the honey made?

Each hive has 'scout' bees that find the best sources of nectar and pollen from which to forage. Because the farms are so diverse, these could range from dandelions to apple and pear orchards, bluebell woods, sycamore and hawthorn trees, cherries and gooseberries, blackcurrants and beans – all of which will give each honey its own distinct flavour profile. The bees gather their nectar and bring it back to the hives and start filling honeycombs. In the evening, they use their wings to fan the nectar, evaporating moisture and concentrating the liquid to make honey.

What's in season

Honey recipe ideas

A teaspoon of honey can jazz up everything from drinks to mains and desserts. Add a fiery kick to your drink with a hot honey margarita, paired with a bowl of crunchy nuts and seeds to snack on. Add some honey to a marinade, like with these smoky chicken wings, which have a fiery, rich flavour. Smother a fresh salmon fillet with a warming mix of honey and harissa and serve with seasoned roasties. Or make a speedy dessert with these 10-minute apricot tarts, drizzled with sweet and sticky honey.

More honey recipes

Peach, apricot and mascarpone tarts on wooden board

How M&S is supporting wild pollinators

M&S already asks all UK growers to be LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) Marque certified, requiring them to provide food for bees and pollinators on their farms. With the support of LEAF, we are delivering a programme for all M&S growers in the UK, aiming to enhance nature-friendly outcomes that will see all growers monitoring pollinators, managing a minimum of 5% habitat area on their farms for wildlife and demonstrating a reduced reliance on pesticides. We're also working with expert partners and growers to test and learn innovative pollinator-friendly farming methods, like planting wildflowers inside strawberry polytunnels.

Together with Fera's National Bee Unit and in consultation with leading NGOs and experts, we are working on a Responsible Honeybee Farming Standard, which we believe will be the first of its kind. We are also working with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and supporting them to help further educate the nation (and ourselves) on all we can do to boost the future of wild bees in the UK.

Bee the change

Published 4.8.2025