Interview: The young Welsh beekeeper keeping his grandfather’s legacy alive

Ella Groves

A Welsh beekeeper has won the prestigious BBC Countryfile Young Countryside Champion Award.

Crowned champion at the BBC Food and Farming Awards in Bristol last month, Dafydd Pett has been recognised for his work in beekeeping, youth engagement, and promoting the importance of bees and pollinators to the countryside.

Continuing a family legacy, Dafydd was inspired by his grandfather to get involved with beekeeping and now aims to encourage other young people to give it a try.

His grandfather began beekeeping in 1969 with his neighbour, with just two small hives in the backgarden, and a plan to become  “massive millionaires,” according to Dafydd.

Although realising two lone hives may not be as profitable as first thought, Dafydd’s grandfather kept bees for the rest of his life, sharing his passion with his grandson.

On the beginnings of his own journey, Dafydd said: “When I was 11 in 2014, the school arranged a visit up to his (grandfather’s) house, which was only up the road.

“So we went up there and he showed us around the bees and if I’m honest, I was completely petrified. I was stood there in this tiny bee suit with my hands in my pocket the whole time.

“But at the same time, it was something quite fascinating, something I wanted to go back and explore.

“So when we’d finished, he came up to me and said, listen, do you want to come back up to the bees sometime and have a go of it. So we went down to an apiary just down the road and he was there, he was going through the hives, I’ve just stood there again, just observing.

“My first kind of real experience then was we went back blackberry picking 2 minutes later. He opened the boot of the car and a bee come and stung me right on the eye and the only thing he could say was, at least you’re not allergic.”

After his grandfather passed away in 2017, Dafydd took responsibility for almost 40 hives scattered across Bridgend at just 14 years old.

He said: “If I’m honest, looking back, it was a bit of a big task to hand to a 14-year-old, but it was something I wanted to continue. It was my grandfather’s legacy. So I took it on anyway.

“My dad, he was also, he was petrified of bees. He has memories of when he was younger running away from the bees and stuff because they’d be stinging him and all sorts. So I dragged him along and then all of a sudden hive numbers just started going up and up and up.”

What began as a small hobby shared with his grandfather soon transformed into a successful national business, supplying high-quality Welsh honey to independent farm shops, butchers, and delis across Wales and the wider UK.

During the pandemic, buyers would go to collect the honey from Dafydd’s grandmother’s house, but with his grandmother in her 70s, Dafydd soon decided this was not safe or sustainable. From there The Welsh Honey Company was born.

He said: “I completely rebranded it and thought we need to think of a new way of getting this honey out because we’ve got all this honey and all these hives. I think at the time we had about 100 hives as well.”

In the years since taking over the hives, Dafydd has become a respected beekeeper, with achievements including representing Wales at the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers in Slovakia in 2019.

The Welsh Honey Company has won numerous awards including Welsh Produce of the Year at The Food Award Wales 2025.

‘Countryside Champion’

His biggest achievement to date however came last month at the BBC Food and Farming Awards, where Dafydd was crowned the BBC Countryfile Young Countryside Champion.

When recalling his win, he said: “I didn’t think I had a chance of winning it. So I sat there without a speech prepared or nothing prepared whatsoever and then Adam Henson, who was presenting the award, announced my name and I went up and I had to give my speech. It was a massive achievement and to be honest, I didn’t expect it one bit.”

He was nominated for the award due his efforts in beekeeping, notably his work to get young people involved in the industry and to raise awareness of the importance of bees to our ecosystem.

With the average age of a beekeeper in the UK being 65, Dafydd has committed to getting more young people involved.

A trustee and youth representative for the Bridgend Beekeepers Association, a charity which aims to raise awareness of bees and their importance to the public, Dafydd works to inspire the next generation of beekeepers.

He said: “If you want to get into beekeeping, there’s a lot to learn and every beekeeper will tell you something different no matter how many beekeepers you ask. So we have a course then from some of our most experienced beekeepers to teach you the practical and also the theory sides of beekeeping.”

He also posts YouTube videos and on social media to connect with a younger audience.

Dafydd notes he has already seen a difference since beginning to post on social media, with younger people demonstrating an interest in the industry.

He said: “Maybe five, six years ago when I started the Welsh Honey Company, I noticed that really the only people that were looking were people on Facebook, who either wanted to buy the honey or were interested in beekeeping and obviously the demographic of Facebook is older people.

“So now I’ve noticed a massive shift now into content on Instagram and also YouTube as well. So, you know, I think that the more I post and the more people are being aware, I think that younger people are thinking, you know what, it is acceptable for me to give something like this to try.”

Following his win, Dafydd has said he will continue his work to encourage young people to get involved with beekeeping.