Jeremy Clarkson has given his top praise to Diddly Squat Farm’s beekeeper.
Viktor Zaichenko, originally from Ukraine, and his wife Lucy, are the beekeepers at Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm in Oxfordshire.
Mr Zaichenko first appeared in the Amazon Prime show in the first series, which was released in June 2021, and taught Mr Clarkson how to keep bees.
Today (August 2), the former Top Gear presenter gave his praise to Mr Zaichenko on X.
In response to a post, he described the beekeeper as a ‘superstar’.
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The post he responded to was by Gwenyn Gruffydd, a Welsh honey company, and said: “The Honey Farm we visited was V & L Honey Makers, based in the beautiful Cotswold.
“They produce a LOT of honey and a LOT of bees.
“Farming over a 1000 honey producing hive as well as hundreds of nucs on top. We spent the day with Victor filming his honey house, beehive manufacturing workshop and visited multiple sites both honey and nuc yards.
“Learning Victors unique way of Beekeeing.
“If Victor looks familiar, well he’s actually quite famous…he’s the beekeeper on Clarkson’s Farm.
“He [taught] Jeremy Clarkson how to keep bees. And judging by the series he did an excellent job.”
This comes after it was revealed that Mr Clarkson’s farm will have to be locked down for at least two months after his beloved cows were hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis.
The 65-year-old said the outbreak was “absolutely dreadful” and that everyone was ‘absolutely devastated’.
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle and badgers that often results in the culling of every animal that tests positive.
Mr Clarkson said the affected cows would have to be culled because “it’s the law”.
He said the farm shop, which thousands of people visit each year, would remain “unaffected” as the disease has no impact on humans and only impacts cows on the farm.
Bovine TB is recognised as a problem which devastates farm businesses and is mainly spread through close contact when cattle breathe in droplets of mucus containing Mycobacterium bovis bacteria exhaled from an infectious animal.
Badgers can carry the disease and culling has long been a part of the Government response to the crisis, despite criticism from wildlife and animal welfare campaigners, such as Queen guitarist Sir Brian May.
The Government said in June it will not be extending the badger cull and retains its commitment to end the practice before the next election.
Oxfordshire is an “edge area” for bovine TB, meaning it is a buffer zone between high risk and low risk areas – so most herds are subject to six monthly TB tests by default.
There have been several cases in the area of Oxfordshire near to Diddly Squat Farm in recent weeks, according to ibTB, a mapping platform for the disease in England and Wales.
