Oor Bees
Based in Dumfries and Galloway, Oor Bees was founded by Phil Collett with a simple purpose; to keep bees well and let the landscape of Scotland do the rest.
Across seven apiary sites, Phil tends to a remarkable operation. Each hive is home to around 50,000 bees, with over 400,000 working bees across any single site at any given time. From the hives comes a range of products including honey, cut comb, and hand-poured beeswax candles, each one unique to the batch of honey it was taken from.
Central to Phil's growth has been his partnership with Eat South-West Scotland, a Regional Food Group established in 2020 to identify and promote new opportunities for food and drink businesses across Dumfries and Galloway. Through start-up support, innovation advice, skills and training, and creating collaboration between producers, the group has helped build a community where businesses can learn from one another.
For Phil, that community has been invaluable. It has given him the chance to connect with fellow producers, share knowledge, and take part in courses covering everything from production to marketing. It's the kind of support that makes a real difference when you're running every part of a business yourself.
Phil leads every step of the process himself. From the hive to the jar, he handles the extracting, straining, and packaging that gets Oor Bees honey onto the shelves of local shops, and into the hands of customers at farmers markets across Dumfries and Galloway every season.
That seasonality is also a part of what makes Oor Bees special. No two batches are the same, and for the loyal customers who return throughout the year, they are always delighted to taste a new jar.
Beekeeping isn't just a livelihood for Phil – it's a craft he pours himself into entirely, and that care shows in every product.
Honey is the taste of summer and there is a bit of that in the product. Every batch is different and customers who come to me regularly throughout the year are seeing changes in the honey.