Andy Cordy, one of our members, sent us this. In the welter of information about the contemporary problems associated with the honey bee and beekeeping, it is easy to forget the joy of the experience of bees in our anxiety to keep things working.  As a BBC Radio 3 listener for decades before bees came … Continue reading Bees in Words and Song

Following recent thefts of bees in South Wales, there will be an item relating to this issue in tonight's BBC Wales Today programme, which starts at 18.30.  If you miss it you can catch up on BBC iPlayer.

Most of you will have heard of Brother Adam and the Buckfast bee he made his life's work.  It is sad that Buckfasts are no longer bred in the UK due, it is said to the problem of finding a suitably isolated site suitable for the mating apiary. However a number of breeders have continued … Continue reading The Buckfast Bee

The British Beekeepers' Association just issued this press release which confirms the poor harvest experienced by beekeepers in 2012.  The average harvest for BBKA Members in Wales* is reported as 9.8 lb per hive compared to 31.6 lb in 2011. * The sample size is not known for Wales.  Most of us keeping bees in Wales are members of … Continue reading BBKA Survey Highlights Poor Honey Harvest in 2012

From the Vita Europe website "Researchers have discovered that honeybees can bite as well as sting and that the bite contains a natural anaesthetic. The anaesthetic may not only help honeybees fend off pests such as wax moth and the parasitic varroa mite, but it also has great potential for use in human medicine." Read … Continue reading The Bite of the Honey Bee