Honey produced at Buckingham Palace served to garden party guests

Buckingham Palace beekeepers have been pictured hard at work to mark World Bee Day.

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.

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.