Our Story
From the Beekeeper himself, Clayton:
"I was born an bred in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Besides being very sporty, I have always had a love affair with nature and spent much of my youth exploring the Cape outdoors. My partner, Roxy is actually a "plaas meisie" from Mpumalanga and has also always loved nature. She ran a cattle farm and also did sales and marketing for her family business. I worked for many years in rope access which afforded me the opportunity to travel and see much of the world. It was an exciting time in my life but the best part of it all was always coming home, to the Cape.
I guess I have wanted to farm my whole life and beekeeping awarded me the opportunity to experience that sort of lifestyle and work with and in nature. I have always been intrigued by bees but took it on as a serious hobby in 2018.
I took a big leap leaving my offshore career to invest everything into our business in 2020. I wanted to be home with my family and work closer to nature.
We have so much passion for what we do and a lot of emotion invested in our business name. When my Roxy moved to the Cape, it was an August and she was really mesmerised at the site of the wildflowers popping up all over. There is also a very meaningful poem: "Wildflowers are the loveliest of all because they grow in uncultivated soil. In those hard, rugged places where no one expects them to flourish." The resilience of a wildflower is inspiring and that's exactly what it takes to start your own business. (Especially something that is affected by the elements of nature!)
Our business is a completely family run operation. I am Wild Flower's only beekeeper and Roxy focuses on the admin, sales and marketing.
Our hives are based all over the Cape and we drive some very far distances to work them. I guess that is one of the challenges of beekeeping...the honey price has also become related to the price of diesel! We have to keep moving our hives around depending on the season and what forage of florals becomes available.
Anyone who knows honey will tell you that "cheap" honey is not real honey! Sadly there has been an influx of honey that is mostly just pure glucose.
We pride ourselves in the fact that our honey is pure, raw and untouched. We hope to educate South Africans about the importance of buying real honey and supporting local beekeepers. Not only is this honey beneficial to one's health but by supporting your local beekeepers you are also contributing to building up our bee populations, which are at threat. It is absolutely vital that we protect our bees and grow their numbers. This affects each and every single human whether you like honey or not. If we don't have the bees, we will starve.
I think it is a hard thought to really comprehend but it is essential that all humans understand this.
We have never ever doubted the quality and pureness of what we produce but we were absolutely overwhelmed when our honey won best bottle overall at The Cape Honey Festival, and, very hugely, at the African Apimondia Symposium. We then took the win in our class at the Royal Show in Natal and the SAMMA World Mead Day held. In Mpumalanga. Being relatively new in the industry, this was really a huge moment for us.
At Apimondia it didn't just win in it's class but won 3 awards in total: 1st in its class for Liquid Light, 1st in it's class for Select and most amazingly, best bottle OVERALL. Our honey won against some of the top producers who have owned this title for years. What an honour for Wild Flower! I honestly believe that when you work with nature, it works with you. There is also definitely something to be said for our Capensis Bee...they are the master blenders of nectar!
We are extremely proud of the strength of our bees and plan to put a lot more hives into pollinations. We have had very fruitful results with our previous pollinations and have established good working relationships with our farmers. As we have grown, we are now able to service more pollination contracts and we are very confident at our bees capabilities.
Our honey is so close to home, we are not aiming for a mass produced market but rather that our special little bottles of "Liquid Gold" can be enjoyed by families around the country... knowing all the hard work that goes into every drop, for both beekeeper and bee.
We also want to play a huge role in helping to grow the South African honey industry by educating all about the values of pure honey. We are also looking at various opportunities to team up with organisations to donate hives and educate rural communities across Africa about this essential industry...which would ultimately have a huge positive impact on the species as a whole."