Carter enjoyed taste of great honey season

Thanks to the July heatwave the bee-keeper, who refused to reveal the exact number of bees, has been savouring nature's own rich rewards.

While the temperature soared to new all-time records, Carter's striped friends had been spreading their wings and going for gold.

"It really is a fantastic honey season," said Carter, who kept bees at his Antrim Road home.

"The honey is thick and heavy and there is plenty of it, we haven't had honey like this for 50 years."

The flow couldn't have come at a better time for Carter. In the past four years many apiarists had been 'stung' with low levels of honey production in the past four years.

"Certainly the yield has been low in the past, but this years is jut overwhelming," continued Carter.

"I think we can only assume that the extremely good weather, along with the fact that a cycle of bad years has eventually been followed by a good year are the cause of it."

Carter, who first took up the hobby when he was only 20, said looking after the bees involved a great deal of time, if not so much hard work.

"The bees are really left alone," he explained. "You'll look after them just like any other livestock in that you keep an eye on them, but the actual harvesting only takes place twice a year."

That takes place at the end of June and again at the end of August, giving two main classes of honey - spring and summer.

"Irish honey is made up of many flavours because it is gathered from so many different flowers and that gives it a completely unique flavour."