A newly released photo of the Princess of Wales has captured Kate Middleton embarking on a new hobby of beekeeping.
The mother-of-three, 41, fully embraced the endeavour for World Bee Day, wearing a beekeeper’s suit as she tends to a hive tho in Windsor.
The image, taken by Matt Porteous, the royal photographer behind Prince William and Kate Middleton’s official family photographs, shows Kate lifting a part of the hive to collect honey.
She grins from inside the beekeeper’s helmet as she does, glancing down at the group of honeybees who are crowded around the board.
We are buzzing about #WorldBeeDay 🐝
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 20, 2023
Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem and today is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy.
📸 @mattporteous pic.twitter.com/QcBPckaXTV
The image was posted on Kensington Royal Instagram to mark World Bee Day.
The caption reads: ‘We are buzzing about World Bee Day.
‘Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem and today is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy.’
Elsewhere, Buckingham Palace beekeepers have been pictured hard at work.
The Queen is also a keen apiarist, and keeps bees at Raymill, her six-bedroom retreat in Lacock, Wiltshire, 17 miles from the King’s Highgrove home.
During a visit to Launceston, Cornwall, last summer Camilla met honey-producers selling jars in the town square, and told them she was a hands-on beekeeper and had only lost one colony during the previous winter.
Honey produced by Camilla’s bees is sold at Fortnum & Mason to raise funds for charity.
This year’s recipient is Nigeria’s first sexual assault referral centre, which the Queen supports as patron.
READ: Princess Kate Reveals She ‘Never Expected To Become A Royal But Fell In Love With William ‘
She is also president of Bees for Development, a charity training beekeepers and protecting bee habitats in more than 50 countries.
Buckingham Palace is home to four beehives on an island in a lake in the garden, and are two hives in Clarence House’s garden.
The hives produced more than 300 jars of honey last year for the palace kitchens, and it was often served in honey madeleines, as a filling for chocolate truffles or in honey and cream sponge.
English