Spring has arrived here in Walrus-land, so it’s time to do some actual bee work at last. This coming season will be a year of expansion. The winter has certainly seen some undesired growth in my waistline, but that’s the wrong kind of expansion for me. Hopefully, my frantic beekeeping activities will help to burn … Read more
Answer: it depends. That is always the answer for every beekeeping question, or so it seems. Actually, there is one which is always ‘yes’ – see end of this article. When I had kept bees for only two or three years, I decided to forego queen excluders, to see what happened. This is actually quite … Read more
I’m writing this on 19th February and my bees are based in Cheshire, UK, just south of Manchester. We have a mild climate, without extremes of cold in winter nor extremes of heat in summer, although that might be changing. I have snowdrops and crocuses in flower in my garden, and it won’t be long … Read more
I have returned to Manchester from three days ‘down South’ in London and Surrey, having had my eye surgery, which was a great success. The surgeon said something like “Stephen’s perfect” when describing the state of my eye, post surgery. I suppose it could have been “Stephen’s is perfect” (referring to his work rather than … Read more
Find out how maths can transform your beekeeping I am no maths (‘math’ in the USA) genius, but I do like to mess about on a spreadsheet. The magic happens when data and calculations morph into a chart that conveys something useful. I have fiddled with plotting honey bee colony numbers over the season more … Read more
Many people, myself included, find spring to be their favourite season. The arrival of snowdrops, then crocuses, blackthorn and early blossoms together with frantic pollen-collecting activity by the bees is a welcome antidote to lockdown. Sometimes beekeepers get a little too excited and forget that we can still have snow in April. As long as … Read more
Busy as a beekeeper: Here in my part of England, the weather is currently absolutely perfect, and we have shaken off the oppressive depressed state induced by a long cold Winter followed by a miserable Spring. It is incredible how rapidly Nature responds to such changes. We went from skeletal trees and frozen ground to … Read more