The Beekeeping Bug

Well, yes…

I caught the beekeeping bug a little while ago..,

Although I picked up my first nuc in June 2016, I have had a longstanding interest in beekeeping. It started when my Chemistry teacher asked me for help to extract honey from the bees in her garden apiary. That was in Oxfordshire. Later, a Chemistry teacher myself in Wiltshire, I found a local beek and helped him when commitments to preparing lessons and marking books allowed. I took an evening class in basic beekeeping to supplement my knowledge. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to set up my own garden apiary so some fallow beekeeping years followed (and a lot of life) until early retirement loomed and the prospect of having a large garden in the countryside presented an opportunity. It was three years before we were able to move in and in anticipation, like most people these days, I mugged up by watching as many bee videos on You Tube and reading as many Google pages as possible. I was not quite, but almost, an armchair expert I thought. My retirement present was a flat packed national beehive.

Real beekeeping soon burst my bubble as I’m sure you’ve all guessed. Hands on experience and responsibility for my own colonies was more challenging on every level than I had imagined and all my research counted for nothing compared to the actual experience of managing bees.

And the questions that arose! Read more