About Thorne

Leading beekeepers and their bees to success with innovative equipment design and resilience to our changing world. No hive left behind. 

We have been making beekeeping equipment in Lincolnshire for over 100 years are proud to be the leading manufacturer and retailer in the UK. Our hives are renowned throughout the world for their quality.

Our Values

Innovation

We can't read the bees' mind, but we can try to keep up with their ever-changing needs. We are constantly evolving our products to work for the bees, they lead the way. 

Resilience

Bees are battling climate change, habitat loss, growing predatory threats and advancing disease. We support beekeepers in keeping them safe, one hive at a time. 

Responsible Production

It would be hypocritical to say we support the bees if our products had large carbon footprints. We don't want to ruin all their hard work! That's why all the materials used in our manufacturing processes are sustainably sourced, all our packaging is recycled, and we use renewable energy wherever possible. 

Our green credentials are impressive. The loose-fill packaging is recycled cardboard from local businesses. Our sawdust and shavings are recycled in fully automatic biomass burners which heat our woodwork shop, wax plant and engineering department. All timber off-cuts are shredded for the biomass or collected and used as smoker fuel. We also produce sawdust and shavings briquettes for use on open fires or wood burners. 

Community

We support the local and wider communities, following our buzzy role models. We hope you're proud to be part of this colony. 

Our vision is for the bees to thrive. We don't mind how you choose to keep your bees. The saying 'If you ask 5 beekeepers for advice, you get 7 different answers' is true. We know this is not one-size-fits-all, but we're here to support whichever beekeeping venture you choose to pursue. For quality, service and innovation, there is only one choice. 

A Brief History

In 1913, the headmaster of Wragby School was a beekeeper and he asked Edgar Henry Thorne, as a joiner on the local estate, to make him a beehive. Edgar did this and he was hooked on the fascinating art of beekeeping. The headmaster became his beekeeping mentor and Edgar began a small business manufacturing and retailing beehives, alongside his normal day job.

Edgar continued to develop and grow his business and 13 years later he developed the wedge type top bar (probably the most widely used top bar today).

At the end of the Second World War, his younger son Leslie Thorne, joined the business. Leslie loved the bees and it quickly became his passion. He made the first foray into plastic hives (we decided to stick with wooden hives!), feeders and honey extractors in the 1960’s. He also made a major investment in the business and drove to Germany to purchase a wax plant. Now E.H. Thorne (Beehives) Ltd could mill and cut their own beeswax foundation sheets.

Leslie was also behind much of the automation of our manufacturing process in the latter half of the 20th Century. This innovation has continued through to the 21st Century with the introduction of microprocessors in many of our in-house machine tools. We still innovate - with simplicity being key in bringing forward new products such as the Easi-Steam and the Adapta Hive Stand.

Thornes Today

Now we are a fourth generation family firm supporting hundreds of local people and more than 50,000 beekeepers. We run  our multi-disciplined business on a 31 acre site at Rand. We also have retail branches at four other UK locations. 

We have a sewing department for producing, veils, jackets, gauntlets and so much more. Our wax plant processes over 100 tonnes of beeswax per annum producing approximately 2,000,000 sheets of foundation.

We supply personalised labels throughout the world. We also manufacture the Empire smokers and fabricate many tools and honey extractors in our engineering department. Here we carry out a great deal of R & D into modifying and producing new equipment.

Our woodwork shop supports a large proportion of our staff working on over seventy woodworking machines.  We have recently added two new state of the art bespoke machines to our range producing amazing quality side bars and top bars.

In this building we also have a large quality control area for sorting, collating and packing the numerous hive parts and frames we produce.

Our assembly department has always been busy and in 2017 we moved them into a larger building giving us much more flexibility and capacity. In here we make everything from open mesh floors to bespoke observation hives. We have also invested in several machines for use specifically in the assembly department. This allows us to produce and assemble the hive parts more quickly than before.

At Rand, we also have our 5,000 sq.ft shop. You will be made very welcome by our staff; an increasing number of whom are now experienced beekeepers.

The Buzz Stop restaurant serves, coffee and homemade cakes, tasty light lunches and afternoon teas. We also have our own museum on site. Our original shop and office was transported to our new site at Rand. Here you will find weird and wonderful equipment and some fascinating photographs.

We are pleased to be in partnership with Thomas Apiculture in France; one of the oldest and most respected suppliers of beekeeping equipment in the world. They specialise in quality stainless steel equipment. We specialise in quality hives. You can now find our Western Red Cedar hives (albeit to a French specification) in their catalogue and their stainless steel equipment in our catalogue.

All our top quality hives are made from Western Red Cedar. WRC is renowned for its natural beauty and outstanding physical properties. It is a highly durable timber and has one of the longest life-spans of any softwood with natural decay and insect resistance. Its low density gives it an insulation value far superior to most other species of timber. It is light, attractively coloured and possesses outstanding dimensional stability All our Budget Hives are made from home-grown cedar. Both timbers are sourced from sustainable forests.

Elsewhere, our four branches hold a large stock of Thornes beekeeping equipment. In Newburgh, Fife we have a retail, warehousing and manufacturing facility. Here Brian and Chelene run the shop, assemble quite a few products and manufacture all of our silicone candle moulds. At Oakley Green, just outside Windsor, Bob and John, expert beekeepers, run the store with some assembly work. The Windsor branch has recently expanded and we have a large ,brand new, shop for you to browse. The Windsor branch is very handy for Heathrow and is only 4 miles from junction 6 of the M4. Then we have Thornes of Stockbridge. This branch is run by Lin and Nigel. They have been been involved in beekeeping for many years and will make you most welcome; you might even get a piece of cake if you time your visit right! Last but not least we have Thornes of Devon. Opened in May 2018 this is our newest branch, run by Abi, Pete and Nancy.  Located at Quince Honey Farm in South Molton, this branch is well worth a visit.