Welcome to Filberts Bees

About Us

Dorset farmer Mark Rogers loved honey, and subsequently in 2005, after reading everything on the shelf and seeking help from local beekeepers, he got some hives for his family farm in Dorset.

The bees eventually flourished and, after a rather steep learning curve, a range of bee forage crops was established at Lower Muckleford Farm.  Honey flowed freely on, well, pretty much everything Mark cooked.  But long days with bee keeping gloves on led to ragged, dry hands.  ‘No problem’ thought Mark, ‘reach for the nearest moisturiser to hand’.  Unfortunately, bees hate petrochemicals and the easy answer resulted in many stings around the wrists and hands. This in turn led to a search for a moisturiser which didn’t upset the bees.  Now, bees can be pretty picky little critters and no product seemed to fit the bill. At the same time as this was going on, he was trying to use honey, wax and pollen to make a delicious nutrition bar (which tasted foul, stuck to your teeth and was indigestible), but on cleaning the cooking utensils one day, the answer was found around the inside of the pan. The mixture of oils and wax were the perfect base for a natural, moisturising balm, which didn’t upset the delicate little bees.

Surprisingly, wax - the overlooked by-product of the hive - came into its own.  As Mark experimented with it, this wonderfully protective and nourishing ingredient became not the by-product it had previously been, but a valuable resource in the years of poor honey yield which were to follow.  After some research, lots of trial and error and a fair bit of mess, the original Hand Salve became a fully tested and assured product for us to sell.  Concentrated Hand Salve is still one of our best sellers.

In May 2008 with a handful of products, Mark’s mum, Philada (aka Phil Burt) set up Filberts Bees and further recipes were concocted. Natural beeswax lip balms, Foot Salve, Cuticle Butter, Farm Hand (a protective Hand Salve), Pleasure Balm (a delicious moisturising massage oil) and Propolis Salve joined a range of polishes, for which fabulous illustrator Holly Clifton Brown dreamt up superb, quirky label designs and storyboards.  Our latest addition to the team is Freya, who takes care of sales and our website, when she’s not busy bee keeping or bottling honey.

Staying Natural & Local

All of our products contain Dorset beeswax and are FREE FROM SYNTHETIC PERFUMES AND MINERAL OILS. NONE OF OUR PRODUCTS IS TESTED ON ANIMALS.

We don’t see the need to use water, so there’s no need for emulsifiers and therefore NO ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES in our products. This means our skin care cosmetics aren’t soggy creams, but are firm (…or sometimes buttery) salves and balms. Unless you’ve got a spare 10 minutes to luxuriate, allowing them to soak in, the salves are all best applied with a little water.

Having discovered farms producing cold-pressed oils in Dorset and the surrounding counties, we now incorporate these quality ingredients into our recipes.