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 with queen rearing and making nucs and … Read more
The Chosen Ones I have some great queens in my hives. My best one is a “yellow dot” in her third season. Her hive is always one of my tallest, giving me loads of honey every year. I’ve never seen any signs of swarming in her colony, and she has gone through two winters in … Read more
The honey flow seems to have slowed down for a while, and my bees are less desperate to swarm. Last week I discovered that three of my hives swarmed even though I had checked them, which goes to show how easy it is to miss the odd queen cell. The majority of my colonies used … Read more
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 … Read more
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, … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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. As you’ll see later, he explained that bees need a holiday too. … Read more