Before I get into bee stuff, I must say something about a show on Netflix that has blown me away this season: American Idol. I think I have previously written about how it makes me cry, which is not something I’m proud of, but there it is. It makes me cry like a baby walrus…
How to stop swarming? Answer: you can’t! At least not completely. However, beekeepers have to try to stop their bees swarming. If you lose swarms, you will not make as much honey as you could do. You can also catch swarms which is great fun. There’s a swarm coming I suspect that a wave of…
The term “newb” is typically used by gamers to describe somebody new to the game, or gaming, and is somewhat derogatory. However, we all have to start somewhere. Even the most gloriously proficient expert at something was once a humble newb. With bees, we usually start off knowing very little. After years with bees, we…
Am I Dying? For the last seven months, perhaps coincidentally since my Dad died, I have been having strange aches and pains in my chest and back. I’m okay with pain, mostly, but when I don’t understand the cause of that pain, my little walrus brain starts over analysing. I have generally always been healthy,…
Sorry about the audio quality on this clip; somebody once asked if I used a potato as a recording device! I don’t, but I actually think my iphone does it better than my portable digital recorder, which is what I used for this. Anyway, I still think it’s worth listening to this nine minute audio…
Peter Little has always been an absolute legend to me because he knows so much about so much and is quite happy to pass on his wisdom. He runs Exmoor Bees and Beehives with his wife and sons producing honey from the glorious Exmoor countryside. They also make and sell bee hives made from Western…
I met up with a very busy Ray Olivarez of Olivarez Honey Bees last October at his company headquarters in Orland, Northern California. In this audio clip from the interview he talks about his famous Hobby Day which is coming up this weekend, as well as pollination, mite treatments and keeping his bees healthy. He…
This is the second in a series of posts in which I provide a short audio clip of my interviewee. Today I’m featuring Murray McGregor of Denrosa Apiaries in Perthshire, Scotland. He has over 3,000 colonies and his main honey crop comes from the heather. In this clip he talks about how he got started…
Back in the day they used to put honey in cans rather than jars, and the picture shows a very young David Kemp sealing the lids on with the old canning machine. Thanks to Andy Wattam for getting the photo to me. Here is a brief section from my 2017 interview with the legendary David…
Last week I hopped over the Irish Sea for a short stay in the ancestral homeland. I had volunteered to be Mike and Lesley Palmer’s driver for a few days. Mike had finished his bee talks in Cork and was spending some time in County Clare before moving up to Northern Ireland to continue his…