Rupert’s Honey philosophy has always aimed at helping the poorest of the poor. This is often single mothers whose children not only need her care and attention but also the ability to feed and raise them. Whilst we do not specifically offer places to women over men, the opportunity for women to be beekeepers or factory workers within a development project is always considered.

Tim and Crispin Jackson designed the Jackson Horizontal Hive (JHH) to be an easy to use, light weight hive in both its application as a beehive, as well as in its management practices of the colony manipulation, which modern beekeeping requires. Most modern beehive designs with movable frames use a specific chamber with frames for the bees to store their honey. These boxes weigh approximately 9kg when full of honey and are therefore relatively heavy to carry. The use of these “conventional” hives makes the removal of honey fast, but the physical work heavy and difficult. The JHH design uses individual frames which are larger than a conventional honey frame, weighing approximately 2,5kg when full of honey. This fact, coupled to the JHH having a horizontal alignment which means the JHH can be suspended at an ergonomic height, saving potential back pain in heavy lifting. The extended handles and even weight distribution makes the JHH easy to carry too. The JHH is therefore perfect for women to maintain, as well as men.