A mother-daughter beekeeping adventure
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | October October feels like the end. For your bees, it is the last chance. A few plants can make a real difference on these final warm days. There is a particular kind of October afternoon in Northern Ireland, one of those mild golden days that arrives completely … Read more
Ivy for bees is the last big nectar flow before winter. Why you should not cut ivy in September, what ivy honey does, and the garden centre climber to avoid.
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | August August in the bee garden: the moment the whole landscape turns purple and everything your bees do this month matters enormously. There is a jar of heather honey on our kitchen shelf. Dark amber, almost reddish. If you tilt it sideways it barely moves. It sits … Read more
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | July July in the bee garden: lavender, borage, and the summer moment when everything finally comes together. We bought lavender at Galgorm in March and within about forty minutes of getting home it was planted in a honey pot by the apiary. We were not entirely sure … Read more
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | Between June and July The blossom is over, the summer flowers are not quite here yet, and your colony is bigger than it has ever been. This is the moment every new beekeeper needs to know about. We had been feeling pretty good about things. The hawthorn … Read more
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | June White clover and bramble. Two of the most important bee plants in Northern Ireland are growing in gardens and hedgerows right now, and most people are trying to get rid of them. There is a moment in early summer when the clover comes into flower in … Read more
BEE HAPPY HONEY | The Bee Garden | May The hedgerows are alive with blossom. Your colony is at its most ambitious. And somewhere in all this abundance, there is a problem waiting to catch you out. May is the month that beekeepers talk about all year. The blossom is out. The hedgerows are white … Read more
April in the bee garden: willow, dandelion, and why the scruffiest corner of your garden might be doing more for your bees than anything you have ever planted.
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.