Kensington Palace released a picture of Catherine, The Princess of Wales to mark World Bee Day. World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20 on the birth anniversary of Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping who was born in 1734. The purpose of the international day is to acknowledge the role of bees and other pollinators in the ecosystem.
We are buzzing about #WorldBeeDay 🐝
Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem and today is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy.
📸 @mattporteous pic.twitter.com/QcBPckaXTV
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 20, 2023
The picture was taken by Matt Porteous at Anmer Hall last year. From The Telegraph’s story,
“To mark World Bee Day on Saturday and promote the importance of bees to the biodiversity of the planet, the palace has released a photograph of the Princess of Wales busy tending to her hives in Norfolk. The Princess of Wales keeps bees at Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham estate, where each batch of honey has its own distinct flavour depending on where the beehives are situated at the time of collection, including lime from the trees which line the roads, or heather and lavender. She brought a jar of honey from the hives for schoolchildren to try on a visit to the Natural History Museum’s new biodiversity hub in June 2021.
The Princess of Wales is not the only royal happy to don a beekeeper’s jacket and protective hood to gather the sweet harvest. The Queen is also a keen apiarist and keeps bees at Raymill, her six-bedroom retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, 17 miles from the King’s Highgrove home. During a visit to Launceston, Cornwall, last summer Queen Camilla met honey producers selling jars in the town square and told them she was a hands-on beekeeper and had only lost one colony during the previous winter.
Buckingham Palace itself is home to four beehives on an island in a lake in the garden, and there are two hives in Clarence House’s garden. These hives produced more than 300 jars of honey last year for the palace kitchens, which is frequently served to guests in honey madeleines, as a filling for chocolate truffles or in honey and cream sponge”.
Catherine, The Princess of Wales was wearing a BJ Sheriff Apiarist Bee Suit specially made for beekeepers.
The Princess was wearing Hunter Women’s Original Tall Rain Boots.