sustainable beekeeping and wildlife gardening
I started my beekeeping journey back in 2009, when following a particularly interesting module of my Natural Sciences degree with the Open University, I learnt about superorganisms and eusociality, aka colonial insects. I realised that it was possible to keep one's very own social insects - honey bees! - but I quickly became confused and …
Hawthorn I have had a couple of swarm calls and a few bumble/solitary bee queries, but nature seems to be rather on hold at the moment. We've had strong winds and more wet, cold weather but the bees are foraging well when they do get the chance: lots of pale yellow pollen and at least …
Those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time will know that I am a champion of small-scale, observational, hands-off beekeeping. But as my background is in agriculture and ecology, I am primarily concerned with how honey bees work and impact the wider environment, hence my interest in both keeping …
This is a recipe I have adapted from River Cottage Fruit, where I have halved the quantity and substituted dried apricots for the sultanas. I thought apricots would work well with the marmalade, whisky and the apples...and I was right! I made a huge amount of marmalade this year, but I adore it both on …
As many of you will know, I am a huge fan of baking and just because my courses are now on Zoom, I still want to have an opportunity to make cakes. So, here is the recipe for the cake I will have on Saturday for my first online Introduction to Sustainable Beekeeping course. This …
In January last year, I attended a conference on landscape use and sustainability at Sussex University, and I took away a strong, galvanising feeling of implementing necessary change. Then - bam - the pandemic hit which actually obliged me to pursue the avenues I had pledged to consider. I thought about putting my Introduction to …
Beekeeping is more than just keeping bees, and right now, with the world in a state of flux, I feel it is more important than ever. Not, I hasten to add, because we should all be installing hives, but an understanding of a bee colony allows us to connect with the interactions of nature so …
I have taken the decision to shelve all my face-to-face courses as the uncertainty continues, and the possibility attendees--or me--needing to self-isolate on an ad hoc basis as the lockdown lifts makes trying to plan dates rather a nightmare, and that's before the social distancing measures that need to be in place. I am very …
Covid-19 has made it difficult for me to run my courses, and given that the current restrictions are likely to be in place until June at the earliest, this means the beekeeping season will be past its peak and those wanting to get started this year might have missed their opportunity if they are wanting …
I received a top bar hive from a friend of mine who I met at the Barcombe Eco Fair; Caroline is another natural beekeeper and wanted someone with the same beekeeping ethics to have her cedar top bar, as she works mainly with Warrés. It has an inspection window (which I know are rather controversial) …
Wayward Bee 