The Walrus and the Honey Bee

Lunch with Randy Oliver

Randy Oliver speaking at the National Honey Show The centennial National Honey Show event took place in October 2023, at Sandown Park, in Esher. I managed to grab Randy Oliver for a quick chat over lunch at the nearby Subway.…

part of book cover showing sketch of hives

20 Nov 23 Walrus

Healthy Bees, Heavy Hives

How to maximise your honey crop Book cover A new beekeeping book seems to get published every week, so I have joined the party alongside my co-author, Paul Horton. Our new book, Healthy Bees, Heavy Hives — How to maximise…

3 Nov 23 Walrus

Three Times Per Year

Yes, I’m going to go on about varroa mites again. What percentage of beekeepers carry out an alcohol wash on their colonies to understand the mite loads of those colonies? I reckon it’s a low number, maybe below 5%. A…

23 Oct 23 Walrus

Mind Your Beeswax

My first ever candles - not perfect, but I'm working on it It’s quite alarming how much honey and wax I used to lose before I purchased my Dana Api-Melter from Swienty. That particular piece of equipment is not cheap;…

16 Oct 23 Walrus

A Honeyed Tale: The 2023 Beekeeping Season in Review

The mole inspects some queen cells Now that most of my beekeeping work for this season has finished, and my book manuscript is off to the publishers, tax return information sent off, BFA magazine printed … I can start to…

14 Aug 23 Walrus

The Chilled-out Walrus Philosophy of Beekeeping and Life

Having fun at Glorious Goodwood When I was between the ages of five and ten years old, I was labelled a “genius” and a “prodigy” by several of my teachers because everything came easy. Once I went to secondary school,…

26 Jun 23 Walrus

How many types of hive can one beekeeper manage?!

Apiary with different hive types Is there method in this madness? As you can see from the photograph showing part of one of my apiaries, there is plenty going on. One might even conclude, upon initial investigation, that the resident…

Steve pointing to some mating nucs with his hive tool

18 Jun 23 Walrus

Life Cycles and Spectacular Growth

From tiny acorns do giant oak trees grow The ability of honey bees to grow their colonies from little nucs to enormous hives with bursting supers is extraordinary. Some colonies that came out of winter looking small are now booming.…

12 Jun 23 Walrus

Summer Survival: Beekeeping Tips for the Scorching Sun

Summer flowers Firstly, it’s important for me to make two things clear; I live in a relatively mild climate and when it gets hot I suffer, regardless of what I do. Our recent ‘heat-wave’ has temperatures up to 29 Celsius…

5 Jun 23 Walrus

The Fascinating Journey of Honey Bees: Honey Production

Honey Extraction Normally, I send out an article each Monday morning, having written it the night before, but it’s all gone pear shaped. On Sunday, after doing lots of bee stuff, including adding clearer boards to hives, I was too…

29 May 23 Walrus

Scorching Scotland And Fantastic New Queens

Steve Donohoe in Tighnabruaich My favourite place in the world may not appeal to everyone. A seven hour journey to get to a house that’s always a little cold (even with bright sunshine outside), followed by sleep on a mattress…

Steve Donohoe and Michael Palmer near Lake Champlain

22 May 23 Walrus

Only The Best of Queens

Me and Michael Palmer near Lake Champlain I imagine that we all have our heroes. On the matter of producing queens, mine are Jay Smith & Brother Adam (both no longer with us) and Mike Palmer (alive and well). The…