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…

15 May 23 Walrus

New queens – the season has taken off!

This will be my new honey processing room This is what I’ve been waiting for. Those long winter nights and short days are past, new life is bursting forth everywhere I look, and proper beekeeping is back. It all happens…

8 May 23 Walrus

How To Handle Swarm Season

Three swarms last year You could write a book on the subject of ‘how to handle swarm season’, and several people have. In the one thousand or so words allotted to this blog post, I shall therefore have to miss…

1 May 23 Walrus

Creating A Lovely New Apiary

The Mole at our new apiary site I have my bees at ‘out-apiaries’ and have never risked keeping them at home. That’s a personal choice which works for me (and my neighbours) but I have far more hives than could…

24 Apr 23 Walrus

Reviewing Beekeeping Notes is Addictive in a Good Way

Field of Oilseed Rape This morning, Mrs Walrus MBE made a quip about where I might be “on the spectrum,” indicating that it is probably some way along. Although this was partially in jest, it was possibly a tactic to…

17 Apr 23 Walrus

Swarming Time and Solving the Space Problem

The mini-plus tower was split into two This is a time when some large discrepancies show up between colonies. One of my apiaries was absolutely booming and nearly every hive bursting with bees. In other places, the picture is more…

10 Apr 23 Walrus

Breeding the Best Honey Bees: Selecting a Quality Queen Bee

Queen bee with workers on pollen frame Now that we are in that time of crazy colony growth, it won’t be long until some people start to raise their first queens of the season. My experience and research into weather…

3 Apr 23 Walrus

Unleashing my bees on new sites

Apiary in an orchard Spring has arrived here in Walrus-land, so it’s time to do some actual bee work at last. This coming season will be a year of expansion. The winter has certainly seen some undesired growth in my…

27 Mar 23 Walrus

Queen excluders: are they needed for successful beekeeping?

Framed wire queen excluder Answer: it depends. That is always the answer for every beekeeping question, or so it seems. Actually, there is one which is always ‘yes’ – see end of this article. When I had kept bees for…

20 Mar 23 Walrus

Equalisation is great, but be careful

A Buckfast out-apiary in the 1960s Just as I was about to launch into a list of beekeeping tasks to carry out in spring, I felt a metaphorical tap on my shoulder. Taking the excess out of booming hives and…

The Walrus and the Honey Bee