It’s that time of the year when it’s time for me to start to get my hives ready for the winter. I’m currently treating all of them with Apivar, which means that the evil varroa destructor mites are taking a beating. If I had any weak colonies, I […]
There is always something new to learn about bees. The same probably applies to almost anything. Material for my blog posts should be endless and easy to come by. Ubiquitous, you might say. I have a vast library of books, interviews with beekeepers, my own experience, research papers, […]
Beekeeping is Local Maybe I am naive or just positive and optimistic, but I’m sure that to many people I have some dangerously liberal ideas. For a start, I deliberately travelled all over the place to meet experienced bee farmers to see what I could learn. Then I […]
Over the years, I have figured out a few things about beekeeping in my area. Every area will be different, but the one that I care about is the one in which my beehives sit. Although seasons vary, they tend to follow a pattern which repeats each year. […]
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date (William Shakespeare, from Sonnet 18) The End is Nigh Strange as it may seem, we […]
People and Personalities I like to think of myself as a friendly easy-going chap, although family members might point out a slight tendency towards occasional rants and intolerance. Over the years, I have evolved. I used to hold the view that people are always out to get you. […]
I’m writing this in the evening, and the temperature is still around 30 Celsius (86 F). Luckily I’m in Manchester; my wife is in London where it’s 36 Celsius (97 F) and very humid. I don’t mind it. I can’t go away on holiday during the bee season, […]
In beekeeping, as in life, everybody makes mistakes. Even bees occasionally make them. The hard part is owning up to them. Douglas Adams said, “a common mistake that people make when trying to design something foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” I hate the fact […]
I love science. I’ve even got a chemistry degree, but don’t ask me about it because that was over thirty years ago. As soon as I left university, I went to the City to do accountancy. It’s hard to deny the importance of science in our lives. The […]
As I was planting out some tomatoes at my Mum’s place today, I became aware of a voice emanating from my back pocket. I grabbed my phone and was horrified to discover that I had “butt called” Murray McGregor of Denrosa Apiaries. I’m crazy busy right now, what […]
