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/
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 […]
