To bee a volunteer

When Alex Ward visited Kairos Head Office a few months ago, little did he expect to leave a volunteer apprentice beekeeper and baker. However, ever since that first visit, the Year 11 student from South London has been volunteering with our beekeeper Grace Madden and her team.

“I’ve learned all sorts of things, starting with the honey harvest,” says Alex. “It turns out I was quite good at taking the caps off the the bee frames and working the centrifuge! Then I helped with jarring up the honey and labelling. I also learned about making beeswax candles. And, because I did an online hygiene course which gave me a proper qualification, I could help with making cakes for the National Honey Show this weekend. We had a number of trial runs but in the end we made a honey sponge cake.

“The whole experience has been really enlightening because it is so far away from something you find in a shop. Beekeeping is being part of nature – it’s a big contrast to anything I’ve done before.”