A mother-daughter beekeeping adventure
We thought it was a nice little tradition. Then we fell down a research rabbit hole that stretches from ancient Greece to 7th century Irish law to the Royal Beekeeper telling the bees when Queen Elizabeth died. The story of why bees must never be bought — only gifted.
Get the kettle on. You’re going to need tea for this one. Our queen absconded mid-summer, leaving us with a queenless colony and a lot of panic. This is the story of how the bees saved themselves, why mentors matter, and what happens when nature takes over.
Bees do not care about your schedule. The plan was simple: a colony of bees as a birthday present for Bee Girl. But nucleus colonies are ready when nature decides, not your birthday calendar. This is the story of our first bees, our incredible mentor, and a summer we’ll never forget.
We’d done the course. We’d passed the assessment. And then Bee Girl looked at me and said: ‘So… now we actually have to do it?’ This is the story of how we went from classroom beekeepers to actually owning suits, a hive, and approximately 50,000 new pets.
Year two at the Ulster Beekeepers Association Conference – how Mum and Bee Girl divided and conquered, what we learned about native Irish bees, chemical-free beekeeping, and why the best learning happens after the lecture.
Every beekeeping operation needs a team. Ours is a team of two: me (Mum, chief worrier) and Bee Girl (age 11, chief bee-whisperer). This post is about the real star of Bee Happy Honey. Who Is Bee Girl? Bee Girl is my daughter. She’s 11, she’s fearless around bees, and she’s the reason we started … Read more
Before we got our bees, before we bought a single piece of equipment, we did the one thing that every beginner beekeeper should do: we took a course. The Randalstown & District Beekeepers Association (RANDBKA) runs an Introduction to Bees course, and it was genuinely one of the best things we’ve done. Here’s what we … Read more
If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be standing in a field in Northern Ireland, wearing a white suit, peering into a box of 50,000 stinging insects with my 11-year-old daughter beside me — I’d have said you were mad. And yet here we are. How It Started Bee Happy Honey began … Read more