We caught up with Dafydd Pett, IT Engineer and successful beekeeper, who recently claimed the BBC Countryfile Young Countryside Champion Award for his business, The Welsh Honey Company, at November’s BBC Food and Farming Awards 2025, held at M Shed Museum in Bristol. 

What’s the story behind your beekeeping and its success, Dafydd? 

My journey began when I was just 11 years old, introduced to beekeeping by my grandfather, Mike Pett, whose hobby started with just a couple of hives in his back garden. A school visit with Litchard Primary to the apiary in his garden sparked my passion, and I was soon helping on the hives every weekend. In 2017, when my grandfather sadly passed away from sarcoma cancer, I inherited his 35+ hives at 14 years of age and made the decision to grow what had been his hobby into something much bigger. 

I started by selling honey at local farmers markets around South Wales before building a website to reach customers online during Covid-19. Over time, that evolved into The Welsh Honey Company, which developed into a great taste award winning business. 

Beekeeping has always been more than just selling honey for me, it’s about preserving nature, supporting biodiversity, and continuing my grandfather’s legacy. 

What does claiming the BBC Countryfile Young Countryside Champion Award mean to you? 

Being named BBC Countryfile Young Countryside Champion at the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards was a huge honour and a real validation of the work I’ve put into advocating for the environment and educating people on bees and beekeeping. 

It’s not just about personal recognition however, it’s about lifting the popularity of beekeeping, raising awareness of pollinators, and showing young people across the UK that they can make a genuine difference in rural and agricultural life. 

As a trustee for the Bridgend Beekeepers Association, how do you engage the next generation of beekeepers? 

My role at the Bridgend and District Beekeepers Association involves education and outreach work. With the average UK beekeeper currently around age 65, bringing in younger voices and enthusiasts is vital for the tradition to continue.  

We run beginners’ courses, share tutorials and educational content, as well as take part in school visits to educate people of all ages about how crucial bees are for our ecosystem and how you can help or get into beekeeping. 

Social media as well as television have been great tools, shifting from outdated platforms to Instagram and YouTube has also helped spark interest among younger people who might not otherwise consider trying beekeeping. 

What sets The Welsh Honey Company apart from other companies? 

What makes us different to other companies is that we have taken traditional beekeeping practices and paired them with modern ethics to ensure that our bees are kept, and honey is created sustainably. 

Our honey is also 100% raw, with nothing added and nothing taken away, ensuring that the honey still retains its nutrients and health benefits, unlike a lot of commercially produced honey found in supermarkets. 

This also ensures that the taste of Wales is represented in every jar with our bees being situated across the Welsh countryside. We’ve also won multiple awards including Produce of The Year 2025, Welsh Enterprise awards and multiple Great Taste Awards which all comes down to the work we put in to retain the sweet taste of our Welsh landscape. 

What is the future direction of the business? 

The plan is to keep growing The Welsh Honey Company in ways that stays true to our values of sustainability and high-quality honey, while also using my experience and platforms to encourage more sustainable beekeeping practices among hobbyists and aspiring beekeepers. 

We will also continue developing our product range and will push to educate people of the importance of eating high quality Welsh honey. 

How do you manage to juggle the business with your full-time role? 

Balancing running a growing business while also working as a full-time role as an ICT Engineer can be difficult, however the contrast between a job where the days are spent behind three monitor screens compared to being out in the middle of the countryside with no phone signal is very refreshing and allows me to have a well-rounded outlook on modern life. 

Finally, what is your favourite way to eat honey?! 

I would say my favourite way to eat honey is on a piece of sourdough toast using my soft set honey as it is a lot thicker than runny honey. This is often my chosen breakfast meal as it kickstarts my day! 😊 

Congratulations, Dafydd! We are sure that your vision, commitment, and ethics will continue to champion beekeeping now and in the future.