My interest in bees

Welcome to me new blog! If you know me, you are probably aware that I have been making beer and writing a blog about it for several years (although I have not published a great deal in the last year or so). That blog is over here: http://cheshirepeaks.blogspot.co.uk/

Recently my interest in artisan creativity has gained a new direction, thanks mostly to my son Matt. A few years ago he became very interested in bees and I received many requests for us to keep bees. I don’t recall where he got this interest from, but I do recall responding with the standard “yes, that would be fun” reply, knowing that the practicalities of indulging him would mean it would never happen. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, but being a boring parent I knew that the complexities of actually getting started with such a hobby would mean life just got in the way and it was a non-starter.

Fast forward to last year and a chance conversation with Rachel, the lady from my company’s site facilities team. In 2016 my company had hosted a beehive at my office in Manchester. Last year the hive was taken away by the owner, but as part of the company’s “green credentials” they were keen to bring the bees back and get their own hive. She said they already had one person who was interested in being trained to look after the hive, but they were looking for another. I heard the words “sign me up” come out of my mouth before I really had much chance to consider it.

After that conversation nothing much happened for a number of months, and then Rachel contacted me about booking me on a two day beekeeping course. Once my booking was sorted out I rang the Manchester & District Beekeepers’ Association and also booked Matt onto the last place on the course so we could attend together.

Meanwhile, I started reading. And reading. And reading. (I do that).

The course took place last weekend and Matt and I enjoyed it very much. We came away with a lot more knowledge but also a little experience of actually opening a beehive and inspecting bees. Very small but exciting steps.

I’ll leave this post at that, and write a separate post about what we learned on the course.