Early in July, while attempting to move a small swarm of bees, I committed a basic health and safety fail. Rushing, I hadn’t secured my ladder properly, and, inevitably, it moved. I actually wasn’t very high; but, as it turned out, I was just high enough. When I confidently tried to jump to safety, I twisted my ankle and ruptured my left Achilles Tendon. Ouch! So, as September approaches, it’s a sad fact that my

As bees mature they take on a range of different jobs within the hive. The final task, reserved for the oldest bees, is foraging. It’s perhaps the most physically intensive of all the roles that they will ever have completed, and a bit like forcing pensioners to repair the roads in human society. Foraging is a job that comes to an end with the demise of the bee. One day, somewhere around Day 42, or

The beautiful Mabinogion contains many pieces of Welsh narrative prose. It was originally compiled in the 11th and 12th centuries. One of the stories relates to the mythical giant Bran, who is reportedly buried in Twmbarlwm (near modern Newport) . There, amidst a huge hoard of gold, Bran awaits, Arthur like, a call to return at our time of greatest need. According to legend, Brian’s resting place and treasure are defended by a fierce battalion

With an aging film reference, I joke about the Swarm Traps that I put out in early May, “build them and they will come”. And, come they usually do. Unusually though, this one turned up while I was actually watching. One very good reason for buying local honey and directly supporting your friendly neighbourhood Beekeeper, is that it funds our capacity to collect and rehome swarms. We can also use our knowledge of honeybee behaviour,

Maybe it’s Bee AirBnB? (And try saving that when you’ve had a few?) Could be it’s the wet Winter or the undergrowth’s got a bit too lush? Maybe the bees are leasing space to relatives? Thing is, there’s a worrying issue in a number of our beehives this Spring. Away from the action, they’ve been squatted by ants! Obviously, ants are known to be opportunistic little cariads* who see warm dry beehives as just as

The conventional wisdom among Beekeepers suggests that a single beehive needs access to, at least, one acre of flowering plants, or trees that flower, to thrive. This sounds about right, if you could break that up into different plants giving nectar and pollen consistently over three seasons in a bell curve. If you, like me, don’t think in acres or bushels or whatnot, imagine a packed square of blossoms that’s 63.25m wide. That would be