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In a cottage garden, not so long ago…..
The adventures in beekeeping began. It all started with the gift of a beehive, a very good friend had considered keeping bees several years ago and was bought a hive as a present. His bees never arrived and when he was moving house, the empty unused beehive needed a new […]
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Is it my birthday soon?
When I told my family I was getting bees, my sisters first response was “oh at least we know what to buy you for your birthday”, little did they know. I quickly realised that whilst I had a hive I was missing several key bits of equipment and spent hours […]
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Glue, hammer and nails ready
A lovely clear sunny day, perfect for a bit of hive building. First on my list was the landing board or hive stand to sit underneath my hive and give my girls a nice ramp to take off and come home too. Most of the flat pack equipment that arrived […]
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Bees in a Box…
How do you get the bees from their original colony into your hive? What the new beekeeping course didn’t prepare me for, suddenly being a beekeeper! Collection day has arrived, and I admit to having a few moments over the weekend where I thought ‘is this a good idea?, can […]
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Fire, not smoke!
Another practical thing we did on the beekeeping course was learning how to light, and importantly keep lit, your smoker – a beekeeper’s best friend. I decided before my bees arrive I’d practise and it was probably a good job that I did. I collected my bits of cardboard, paper […]
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Bees | In the hive | Learning
Meet Cleo,
the Queen of Bluebell. Every hive needs a queen, ours has Cleo. She is the heart of our colony and the biggest bee in the hive. She is also the longest living bee in the colony, and if all goes well she will be with us for 3-5 years. Her […]
