Celebrating National Honey Day with Will Wilkinson
In celebration of National Honey Day (21 October), we’re sharing the journey of Will Wilkinson (Bioveterinary Science 2011), whose career has taken an unexpected turn into the world of beekeeping. National Honey Day raises awareness about the benefits of honey, from its health properties to its environmental impact, and champions beekeepers who work hard to produce this liquid gold. Will's passion for bees blossomed during his time studying at Liverpool, ultimately leading to his own beekeeping venture, Wilco’s Bees.
Do you have any memories to share from your student days at Liverpool?
One or two. Whilst I didn’t get up to much drunken mischief (that wasn’t my scene) and I avoided initiations of any kind, there were a couple of hairy moments. One was having my bike saddle stolen, which was a shame as I loved cycling in from D&R and racing the 699.
There are far more good memories though: a snowball fight in shorts (great until people held me down and stuffed them with snow), trips to Formby beach the day after summer exams, and a great community atmosphere within the Vet School between staff and students. I made several friends, many of whom are among my best friends today.
I was part of the Christian Union and helped lead the Vet CU which was a real encouragement to me as a student, especially going on the VCF weekends away and meeting other vet students, vets, nurses, and their families from all over the country.
Did the Bioveterinary Science students study alongside the vet students?
Yes. It was brilliant and a real shame that this has stopped. We even sat the same exam papers but with a lower pass mark of 40%, as is usual for most degrees. At the time we sat 50% of the vet modules for the first two years and 50% biology modules; in third year there was opportunity to skew towards biology or veterinary modules. The combination gave a great grounding in science and exposure to veterinary topics as well as allowing friendships between us and the vets – which played a large part in how I met my wife!
Tell us about your career since studying Bioveterinary Science at Liverpool.
After graduating from Liverpool in 2011 I started the accelerated vet course at the RVC, qualifying in 2015. The practice I’d grown up doing placements at sold shortly after I qualified and the new ‘proudly independent’ owners gave me the boot and sold on the practice to a corporate. I then worked in small animal first opinion practice in Farnborough for several years before burning out and began working part-time at Surrey University three weeks before the first lockdown (as they say, ‘those who can’t do, teach’) and locuming.
I later stood for RCVS Council, after being challenged by a friend to get involved, narrowly missing a position after receiving a humbling number of votes from fellow members of the profession. Colin Whiting stood down out of integrity a short while later and I was asked to take his position as the next in line. I’m not sure I’ve managed to improve very much through this, but I have tried.
While in practice I also had a flock of sheep and latterly managed a second flock for a friend. I joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as a Reserve Veterinary Officer and in recent years took up beekeeping which has resulted in an outbreak of hives and my business, Wilco’s Bees.
When did you get interested in beekeeping and what led you to start Wilco's Bees?
This was partly triggered by some of the VPH teaching from the Eleni and Phil dream team, where honeybees were discussed and there was even a honey tasting practical. This introduced me to the National Bee Unit, who are responsible for the health of the nation’s honeybees, with whom I was able to do a week of EMS. The NBU were wonderful and enthusiastic hosts, and the week of EMS very worthwhile, especially as a few pub lunches may have been involved. I then considered beekeeping for a few years but was discouraged by the initial investment until a chance encounter with a local bee farmer encouraged me to give it a go.
Lack of knowledge hampered my first attempts. I decided to give things a break the following year, until I happened across a swarm around a week after making that decision. I abandoned the abandonment plan and started to accumulate bees (you can’t have too much of a good thing, right?) and did a lot of background reading to learn how to look after them successfully. I tend to get a bit carried away with things, and after a year or so had the opportunity to do some contract beekeeping and decided to try and make a business of it.
I now manage several of my own colonies across several sites, as well as colonies for business clients and (apart from exasperating my wife when I’m occupying the kitchen for candle making or honey extraction) it tends to keep me out of trouble.
We're celebrating National Honey Day. What's special about the honey you produce? How is it different to supermarket options?
When bees collect honey and store it in modern hives, they put it into boxes referred to as ‘supers’. As one super is filled, the beekeeper puts another onto the hive to be filled. Since different plants flower at different times of the year, this means different supers are likely to have different honey at different times of year.
Honey is one of the most faked foods in the world and even if the stuff in the supermarket is the real deal, it’s likely to have been likely to have been mixed from multiple different sources before being microfiltered and heated as part of processing.
When I extract honey, I keep honey from each hive separate and tend to keep honey from each super separate. This means the honey in each jar I sell comes from just one hive and I can tell the season it was from and gain an idea of what type of flowers are likely to have contributed towards it. It’s also amazing how honey from the same time of year but different sites can vary dramatically depending on forage availability.
How can alumni keep up with what you're doing?
If this hasn’t been soporific enough, I (very) intermittently post on Instagram @wilcosbees, have a website or can be contacted through Facebook, LinkedIn or my email at Surrey University.