Molly Earl was “just a nipper” when she started catching honey bee swarms with her dad, an amateur beekeeper, armed with nothing but a cardboard box.
“Sometimes, if I was lucky, I’d get a sheet to put over the box,” she laughs.
As an adult she took up beekeeping herself as a hobby, collecting unwanted swarms as a way of building up her numbers. But with many settling high up in buildings, she was unable to remove them without the necessary insurance or equipment.
Wanting to protect these important pollinators – which would otherwise be at risk of being poisoned by pest controllers – Earl set up Bees Off, a bee removal company. She and her part-time team of five, including a builder, travel around Cornwall to save honeybees. Since 2020, she has established 250 rescued hives around St Austell.
