Army proves it can Bee the Best as its sets up first formal hives at Aldershot HQ

Army proves it can Bee the Best as its sets up first formal hives at Aldershot HQ


The first official Army bees have taken up residence at the headquarters of Standing Joint Command in Aldershot – and they are already creating quite a buzz.

The man behind the project is Major Frank Culverwell, a member of the HQ staff who first took an interest in beekeeping during lockdown.

He is currently looking after around 30,000 bees housed in two hives, with plans to produce honey.



Maj Culverwell enjoys home-produced food, and during his time at the Army Training Regiment in Winchester, he also worked with young recruits to develop allotments.

Now he wants to share his love of bees with the Army, too.

Funding for the hives came from an Army welfare grant, due to the therapeutic qualities of beekeeping, allowing personnel at the busy headquarters to escape their desks and try their hand at a new skill.

"Going to see the bees, you're just focused on one thing," said Maj Culverwell.

"When you're in your bee suit looking in a hive, you don't think about anything else – it's a great distraction."Army beekeepers plan to produce their own honey named Bee the Best (Picture: MOD)


Maj Culverwell chose the European Buckfast honey bee for the project – it's mild-mannered, highly productive and best suited to the UK climate.

He started off with one hive to allow a colony to reproduce enough for a second, new hive.

When BSBS Forces News visited, the task of the day was to find the queen bee in the new hive – hidden among 20,000 bees – marking her with a blue dot to make it easier for beekeepers to find her in future.

Maj Culverwell now wants to pass his beekeeping skills onto others.

"Nobody had ever applied for funding for anything like this, so there were a lot of questions, the main one being, 'what will happen when I move on?'" he said.

"I arranged for an away day for my team and other staff members to observe and learn how to manage bee colonies, so when I am posted, these hives will remain."The new queen bee is marked with a blue dot (Picture: MOD)


Captain Jass Woodford has already joined the beekeeping team.

"I thought it was something quite interesting, different and a great way to get out and away from the computer where I spend a lot of time, as many of us do," she said.

The hives were only created a month ago, but already the keepers have ambitious plans.

"It will take another few months for them to become productive, but the aspiration is to be able to produce jars of Army Bee the Best honey," said Maj Culverwell.The hope is more Army beekeepers will join the team in future (Picture: MOD)


United Nations World Bee Day falls on 20 May, raising awareness of the threats bees face.

The UK bee population is in decline, increasingly under pressure from human activities and around a quarter of Europe's bees are also endangered.

Yet pollination is a fundamental process not just for the survival of our ecosystems, but also for ensuring food security, as crops depend on bee pollination.

One in every three bites of food taken worldwide is a foodstuff that has been naturally pollinated.

As well as benefiting personnel at Aldershot, the Army's bees will be contributing to boosting the population of pollinators and helping the natural ecosystem thrive.