You might not have known, but yesterday was World Bee Day (don’t worry, we forgot to celebrate too).
But you know who didn’t forget? Queen Elizabeth and her social media team. In honor of the international holiday, the official Royal Family Instagram account shared a slideshow of photographs of the bee farm at Buckingham Palace.
According to the post, BP is home to four Italian honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica, if we’re being technical) hives. The bees live on an island in the palace gardens and feast on a wide variety of nectar plants. Who knew?
The bees get busy during the season and actually produce enough honey (over 200 jars) for Her Majesty’s estate to be self-sufficient. The sweet nectar is then used by palace chefs to make honey madeleines, chocolate truffle filling and honey and cream sponges, which are all served at special events such as garden parties.
The 94-year-old monarch isn’t the only one that knows her honey. Yesterday, Camilla Parker Bowles was named President of Bees for Development, an organization that provides free beekeeping information and support to individuals in more than 130 countries. Last year, she also joined a campaign to save the British honey bee and even installed nine hives in the backyard of her Wiltshire garden, according to the Inquisitr.
We bet all of the royal fam’s homemade honey would go great with those famous scones.