Beekeeping

Introduction

In writing my previous stories I have been urged on by my Grandchildren. The same goes for this work although this time the trigger came from a member of the wider family.

I have been keeping bees for 35 years and it has been suggested that if any of the family wanted to follow my example, stories of this nature might be helpful, if only as an awful warning!

For details of the life of a colony of bees and the accepted methods of handling them, there are many very good books available. My methods tend to be unorthodox and the stories to be told in the following chapters are of the sort of events that the standard textbooks are unlikely to mention. Whether my methods have been successful can be assessed in several ways. If honey production is to be the measure then I would say that reasonable success has been the result. If my work is to be judged by the maintenance of happy colonies, then equally I can claim that I have not lost any by neglect. If profit is to be the criterion then I would fail badly. I do sell a small quantity each year and I suppose the plaintive requests from the local grocer for more supplies is sufficient to prove that the honey is commercially acceptable. It is certainly very pleasing to be told that customers are asking when the next delivery is due. My honey can be sold as pure and unadulterated with a very easy conscience. Apart from the extraction process it goes straight from the combs into the jars.

However, it is far too easy to hand out jars of honey to all and sundry, and there is a certain pride in doing so. One does not, of course, charge family for a jar of honey and that is where most of my bees' production goes. (Noticeably there has been a marked reduction in the distribution of Tedney honey around the University Campuses as the grandchildren have moved on).

I shall start in Chapter One telling the story of how I became a bee-keeper.

Chapter One