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.
Northern Ireland beekeeping
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
Why Our Bees Have Been Here Longer Than Basically Everything (And Why That Made Mum Cry a Bit)
A mother-daughter beekeeping adventure Right. Pull up a chair. Get the kettle on. I need to tell you about this talk, because it properly changed how we think about our bees. So there I was at the UBKA Annual Conference, sitting in the lecture hall with my phone out trying to record everything, scribbling notes … Read more
Why You Must Never Buy Your First Bees (And the 8,000 Years of Folklore That Explain Our Birthday Present)
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.
Our Queen Did WHAT?! (The One Where Everything Nearly Goes Wrong Before We Even Start)
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.
The Best Birthday Present Ever (Even If It Was a Few Months Late)
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.
So We’re Really Doing This (The One Where We Buy All the Gear)
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.