I noticed that Vermont beekeeper Mike Palmer has now got a website, so here are some notes from my visit to meet him 18 months ago: The Journey to America I stayed with Mike and Lesley Palmer for a few days in July 2017. My daughter Clíona, who is also my beekeeping assistant, was happy…
Last October I was in Northern California to interview Ray Olivarez of Olivarez Honey Bees. It took a fair bit of arranging to get a date which worked for Ray but eventually we settled on Tuesday 23rd October at his place in Orland. A walrus far from home… My flight from the UK landed at…
As Confucius almost certainly once said, “It’s the Yin and Yang, innit?” in answer to questions about why life is so rarely all black or all white, but is both at the same time. I am at peace with this. When the brown stuff hits the fan I am comforted to know that it will…
Yesterday I treated all of my hives with oxalic acid vapour using a Sublimox device plugged into a generator. The generator was a gift from a friend who I have helped out with bees over the last year. The Sublimox was a gift to myself and my bees. Research at LASI, located at my old…
Extracts from my interviews with bee farmers about the main threats to their livelihood
What’s my plan? Well, since you ask, I shall enlighten you. I am not a commercial beekeeper. The main reason for me keeping bees is that I enjoy getting out of the city into rural Cheshire so that I can be closer to nature and feel the passing of the seasons as they happen. Town…
This beekeeping malarky is not a simple matter of putting bees in a box and leaving them alone; far from it. A lot of work and cost, in both time and money, goes into ensuring that our bees are booming and healthy and productive. Always remember the saying, “If you look after your bees, they…
I recently read a ludicrous article on BBC News, “Can Listening to Bees help save them – and us?” which continues the campaign of mis-information about honey bees. I used to think that this type of report, of which there are many, was just lazy reporting but now I am beginning to suspect a deliberate…
As I write this, the bells of Big Ben are chiming across London Town as part of the Remembrance Day commemoration, which is particularly poignant this year as it was precisely 100 years ago that the World War One hostilities ended. What a grim war that was. They all are. The “War to end all…
I am back from my Californian adventure, which involved spending time with Ray Olivarez of Olivarez Honey Bees and Randy Oliver who runs the popular scientific beekeeping website and writes in the American Bee Journal. I learned a lot and added to the great material that I want to pass on in my forthcoming book….