I was going to show you a photograph of my sandwiches all snugly wrapped in one of our beeswax wraps, but I've eaten them. Maybe next time. The wraps are now available through our website. Hand made using 100% cotton and a secret recipe that only Queen Zee and the buzzy miracles know; and they're not telling! Even the packaging is made from vegetable starch so that it can be composted. This is the nice alternative to cling film that doesn't turn up on David Attenborough programmes for all the wrong reasons that it would pain me to relate. Food wrapped or covered in them just seems to stay fre ..read more

After a run of bad weather, as the temperature rises the beekeeper has to be vigilant during hive inspections to spot any signs of swarm preparations and ready to take preventative action. That's a whole different subject and one that I'm sure I will comment on later. However, as I was looking at one of my hives I heard the noise, and sensed the activity of the adjacent hive escalating. They were up to something. This colony should not be swarming but it was. I'd previously performed a 'split' where I took a good half of the brood nest and set it up as another colony elsewhere. I also managed ..read more

There are many methods dotted around the internet, but in this blog I will comment on what works for me. GROUND RULES: It is very easy, but it does involve some change from using commercial products. It is so worthwhile as you may be able to cut out conditioners and drastically reduce your plastic waste. You can find the benefits of shampoo bars elsewhere on this site. Our shampoo bars contain beneficial oils and butters to nourish your hair, but you need to lather up well and rinse thoroughly to avoid any sticky residues. You will be surprised by how little you need but will soon get the bala ..read more

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/1544e3_054e6bc486054bfd92ca4467f93ec501/720p/mp4/file.mp4 HONEY ADULTERATION I was fortunate enough to view an excellent webinar by Lynne Ingram about the issue of honey adulteration and wow, what an issue it is. Her excellent, well-structured presentation illustrated that the problem is more serious than most of us would believe. There are clickable links on the figures below that will take you to the facts. LET’S START WITH SOME BASICS:- · HONEY FRAUD – the overall term for actions intent on defrauding the consumer for economic gain. It is a crime carried ou ..read more

We decided to move one of our hives from the main apiary to a site about 200 metres away. The reasons for doing this were as follows:- IMPROVE TEMPERAMENT. None of our hives are badly behaved. On occasions last year, a few bees did follow us further than we'd like, but nothing serious. We didn't experience any problems at all when inspecting any of the hives. However, we do have a hive on a neighbour's farm a mile or so away which is on its own and is very placid. It built up well enough to survive the winter without feeding. Do colonies prefer to be apart from each other? REDUCE DISEASE TRAN ..read more

I'm not so sure about starter strips having seen what has happened to some of them as I prepare the colonies for winter. Part of this process is reducing the number of boxes in which the bees will over-winter. I remove any comb that the bees have not drawn, or have partially drawn, as the bees are unlikely to draw new wax as the autumn approaches. The brood nest will be shrinking freeing up cells for 'stores'. A few frames removed had starter strips and I noticed that the bees seem to have chewed the strips away before attaching their own comb to the frame. See the pictures below which shows t ..read more

We were intrigued to find that you could make a 'Plastic Free Pledge' by visiting the LessPlastic website; which is well worth doing. It has lots of ideas about how we can reduce or eliminate plastic from our lives and the oceans. Many of you will have watched recent TV programmes hosted by David Attenborough that show how distressing this issue is. Anyway, we thought it would be a really good idea to complete the pledge and add it to our website so that others can see it. It is an important part of our culture and the pledge helps cement its importance in place. I would recommend that you tak ..read more

Princeton University Press. 2019. ISBN 978-0-691-16676-6 I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Honeybee Democracy’ by Tom Seeley and was eager to read this book, particularly as the jacket claims that it ‘reveals how we can become better custodians of honey bees’. I need to become one of them! Much of what we know or believe about honey bees has come from studies undertaken using managed colonies. The author thought it was high time we considered wild colonies to see what we can learn from them. In Northern America, where he comes from, wild colonies are abundant, and seem to be coping with all that life has ..read more

The Ten Commandments of Beekeeping * – with comments by Colin Wood – 7th May 2020. INTRODUCTION I have blatantly stolen this idea from Michael Bush. I recently discovered Michael’s interesting ideas, and amongst the gems on his website are his comments on the same 10 commandments that you see listed below in black. (I’ll put a link to his responses at the bottom and urge you to explore his site, and maybe buy his book). I share his views on so many things, for which I sometimes feel like a heretic going against established doctrine. Most of us beekeepers have the same basic goal, but there are ..read more

I've had many interesting conversations about my honey this year. I've changed the label following research into honey fraud and comments arising from discussions with my vegan friends. Those of you who know me will recall how I felt floored to find that vegans wouldn't touch honey due to how bees were treated by beekeepers. I thought we were the good guys saving the planet, but they had a point. Well, it may not be acceptable with trading standards, but I like the term 'raw' when applied to honey. Raw in the sense of unprocessed. Many beekeepers will heat their honey to make it runny enough ..read more