As I was thinking ahead to next spring and summer, and reflecting on seasons past, I decided to check my records to look at swarming. In the season just gone swarming kicked off much earlier than I’d seen before. I have detailed records going back to 2013, which […]
Mites, Weather & Queens I’m a beekeeper, so the majority of my posts are probably about varroa mites, the weather and queens. So many of the problems I’m likely to face are covered by these things. Varroa mites are a significant problem for honey bees, and that doesn’t […]
I often like to have some theme for my blog posts, but today I’m just writing whatever pops into my head. There are lots of things to say about bees, but after a while, it can get a bit stale. Bees are fascinating insects, and most beekeepers tend […]
How this Walrus does it I harvested my last honey in August and treated for mites as soon as the honey supers were off. This works for me. Many beekeepers leave the harvest until later, maximising their honey crop, but I’m happy with what I do. At that […]
At the risk of revealing my grumpy old man tendencies, I shall describe a series of unfortunate events which unfolded earlier today. Perhaps somebody will identify with circumstances like these when multiple small problems cluster together to make a GIANT ***storm! I had entered a local honey show […]
I’m back from my holiday in Lanzarote. I have seamlessly adjusted from blue skies and 26 deg Celsius to whatever ridiculous weather we have here in Manchester. My bees are not flying; they are indoors trying in vain to form webbed feet. Artisan Fair Today I did a […]
I am excited that my book is currently with the talented Lucy at Carnegie Publishing. She is working on the design and layout, deciding on page sizes, fonts, illustrations, and so forth. She’s nearly done, and from the sample that I have seen it’s going to be beautiful. […]
There are many things in beekeeping which cause furious debate. One part of this, which this demonstrated below, is that different beekeepers deal with different environmental conditions. Here are some extracts from Interviews with Beekeepers on the subject of hive ventilation: Murray McGregor (Perthshire, Scotland) Steve: Another thing […]
Obsessions If you asked somebody that knows me well to describe me, they would probably mention my obsessions. I’ve had a few over the years. The biggest one, the one that would have killed me if I hadn’t broken it, was alcohol. Currently, the main one is honey […]
Not all heroes wear capes. These ones wear nothing at all. Read at Modern Farmer. https://modernfarmer.com/2019/09/livestock-superpowers-farm-animals-most-spectacular-traits/
