How We’re Getting On
Two weeks in on the screen-stack fix, a fresh virgin queen in hive 001, a backup graft ticking along — how three separate queen situations are getting on.
Hive & Seek
Our beekeeping journey — hive inspections, bee adventures, and everything in between.
What We Actually Did (And Why)
After confirming the Randalstown queen was gone, I had to pick a fix from a shelf of methods that all disagree with each other. Here’s how I weighed them up, what I actually did, and two honest cautions for anyone in the same spot.
No Queen, All Drone Brood: Diagnosing a Laying Worker Hive
So that’s what I did. I built hive stands. I tidied the garden. I enjoyed, genuinely enjoyed, having nothing beekeeping related that needed doing. If you keep bees you will know how strange that feels. Standing in your own garden with your hands empty, on purpose, is not something this hobby prepares you for. I … Read more
What Does a Hive Inspection Actually Look Like?
A real hive inspection from 24th April 2026. Bee Girl ran the whole thing. Mum worried about chalk brood. It was a drone larva. Six frames of solid brood and a lot of optimism about this year’s honey.
The Bees Knew. (The Science Just Caught Up.)
A new research paper reveals that honey bees may be running their own viral surveillance system. We break down what recapping behaviour means, why resistant colonies do it better, and what Bee Girl thinks it sounds like (spoiler: a sick bay).
The Garden Centre Lied to Us (And We Nearly Believed It)
How a Sunday trip to Galgorm turned into a beekeeping education, a rookie mistake, and the start of our mission to plant real food for our bees.
Second Box Day (And Why I Stood in the Garden Thinking About It For Ten Minutes)
Our bees built comb in the roof. They needed more space. So we added a second brood box — but not before standing in the garden overthinking it for ten minutes.
When a Real Bee Scientist Talks, We Take Notes
What we learned from Stephen Martin’s incredible beekeeping adventures Right, so here’s the thing about being complete beekeeping beginners: when you get the chance to listen to someone like Stephen Martin—an actual bee scientist who’s spent decades studying bees around the world—you sit up straight, you take notes, and you try not to feel too … Read more
The Secret Lives of Varroa Mites (Or: How Bees Are Way Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For)
A Bee Happy Honey Deep Dive Okay, so Mum here. I recently sat through a lecture by Professor Stephen Martin about varroa mites, viruses, and how bees adapt to both. And friends? My brain is officially melted. In the best possible way. I walked in expecting the usual doom and gloom about colony collapse and … Read more
Think Before You Treat: What We Learned About Chemical-Free Beekeeping (And The Possibly Terrible Decision We Made)
Right, so full disclosure before we go any further: this is our first year keeping bees. Our FIRST year. We got them in spring, we’ve been learning as we go (with approximately zero idea what we’re doing), and we’re currently in our first winter praying we haven’t killed them all — and nervously second-guessing our … Read more