Welcome

Welcome to my new blog.  I have started it so I can write and post occasionally about beekeeping, and share my photos.  My first and main blog, TrogTrogBlog (www.trogtrogblog.blogspot.co.uk), is mainly for wildlife photography.  It does include posts about bees - mainly bumblebees and solitary bees - but very few of the readers are beekeepers.  I also post about aspects of honey bees and their behaviour which are of general interest.  I joined Facebook to keep in touch with my local beekeeping association in Hexham but some aspects of Facebook posts are very limiting.  One can't, for instance, post a photo

then some more text, then another photo

then another photo, and so on.

It is also not possible (as far as I can work out) to prepare, save and schedule posts in the way I can with my blogs.

I have been keeping bees since 2012 so I am still fairly new to the game but I enjoy watching and photographing bees (and beekeepers).  I also enjoy being involved with teaching about bees and beekeeping at the Hexham Beekeepers Association apiary and in local schools.

I have four hives in my garden at the end of a difficult season in 2016.  The spring was very cold up here in the North East of England and meant I couldn't open the hives for an early inspection.  As soon as there were a few warm days I had swarms all over the place - I have very understanding neighbours - and spent the rest of the year sorting things out.  I started the year with three hives, peaked at ten(!) and now have four, three in double brood boxes and one in a single.  I took no honey and instead fed the bees gallons of sugar syrup to get them into shape.

I was surprised to see bees out foraging yesterday - the last day of the year.  It was mild (10℃), sunny and breezy and there was a lot of coming and going at the hive entrances.

But some bees were also foraging on nearby mahonia

and a few were bringing in pollen, presumably from the mahonia.

Several were just basking in the winter sunshine.

I expect posts on this blog will be sporadic, reflecting the nature of beekeeping, and will include lots of photos (my bees are quite used to the cameras).  To start us off here are a few more.

If you want to see previous posts relating to honey bees on my main blog TrogTrogBlog click here.