I started keeping bees around 8 years ago now. I bought my first bees at an auction on the Wirral run by the Liverpool Beekeepers Association. I didn't get a nuc (kind of a starter box) but a full hive's worth, for £130. I well remember driving them home with Steph the next morning through the Mersey tunnel, both of us suited up and feeling cool and ridiculous at the same.
Each year since has been full of new discoveries and adventures, but this year I've decided to broaden my horizons and try a few things I've been meaning to engage with but still haven't. Moving the bees to specific nectar crops is number 1 on the list. From my garden in Dunblane, where I had 4 colonies at the beginning of the year, some of my bees will this year visit crops of oilseed rape in May, field beans in June and the mountain heather in July/August. Pictured above is my best colony at the rape, which is just coming into flower.
Each year since has been full of new discoveries and adventures, but this year I've decided to broaden my horizons and try a few things I've been meaning to engage with but still haven't. Moving the bees to specific nectar crops is number 1 on the list. From my garden in Dunblane, where I had 4 colonies at the beginning of the year, some of my bees will this year visit crops of oilseed rape in May, field beans in June and the mountain heather in July/August. Pictured above is my best colony at the rape, which is just coming into flower.
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