About Jonathan

Jonathan first started beekeeping in the early 1970’s whilst living in Yodfat, an organic agricultural, co-operative community in the Lower Galilee in Israel. He was there for close to 20 years. In addition to the various farming roles and responsibilities he had, Jonathan took on the task of setting up and managing approximately 20 bee colonies that were needed to ensure good pollination for the orchards and the field crops that the community produced.

As beekeeping was completely new to Jonathan, taking on this role was a steep learning curve and many mistakes were made. However, through perseverance and with the good guidance from a veteran beekeeper in a nearby Kibbutz, Jonathan soon learned what good beekeeping could be.

These were the days before the parasitic Varroa mite, Varroa destructor, became so prevalent throughout the honeybee world.

In his spare time, Jonathan developed a small Educational Animal Park specifically designed for the children of the community to learn from and enjoy. It was largely run by the children themselves.

The idea behind the park was to create conditions as natural as possible for the animals so the children could learn about the environment and the natural world. At the same time, they could learn how to be responsible by caring for other living things and gain confidence about themselves. The children learned how to organise themselves and set up daily rotas to feed all the animals before and after school, and to share all the chores and maintenance of the park.

Over the years, the park grew and became a huge success. 

A particular favourite was the small troupe of South American squirrel monkeys that Jonathan imported from the U.S. He designed a large open, walk-in, semi-natural environment of about half an acre with innovative fencing that allowed the monkeys the freedom to live as naturally as possible amongst the trees. In the Nature room, the children even bred locusts to feed to the monkeys as part of their diet. The monkeys flourished in that environment and they soon began to multiply, more than doubling in number. There was even the unusual and rare event of one mother giving birth to twins.

The park gained quite a reputation throughout the country and became a favourite place to visit. 

Shortly after Jonathan left the community, the park was converted into a commercial visitor centre and today it is called the Monkey Forest.

After returning to live in the UK in the late 1980’s, Jonathan pursued different interests which included training as a counsellor, he also formed two different technology companies. He later trained as an Executive Coach and Coach Supervisor. During this time, there was little room to continue his passion for beekeeping, and it wasn’t until 2005 that he was able to find the space and time to revisit his interest in these unique insects and take up beekeeping again.

A couple of years previously, Jonathan and his family had found a derelict bungalow called Two Brooks, with about half an acre of land surrounded by beautiful countryside that proved to be an exceptional location to keep bees.

With kind support and permission from the land owner of the adjacent fields, Jonathan was able to establish a spacious apiary where he could focus his efforts on breeding his Varroa resilient bees.

The bungalow had ample space to set up a large workshop where Jonathan could pursue one of his other passions; making things. He was then uniquely set up to renovate the bungalow and to settle in to making all his beekeeping equipment.

In 2013 Jonathan joined the National Bee Unit as a Seasonal Bee Inspector and was responsible for Surrey in the Southeast.