Hi, I’m a beekeeper in Surrey and I’m finishing the 2024 season with 7 colonies. I will be trying to increase the number of colonies to 10 in 2025 by raising my own queens and using splits. The 2024 season has been very heavily impacted by the weather but I still managed to get around 50Kgs of honey despite most of the queens needing replacing. I’ve put together some advice for beginning beekeepers and having made a lot of my hive equipment with some of the plans on the site. I’m the Asian Hornet coordinator for my local association and will publish some articles and news on the current status of the Yellow Legged Asian Hornet in the UK.

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My Beekeeping

I have been keeping bees for around 20 years. I will be focussed on trying to get a reasonable honey crop. I use mainly 14 x 12 National equipment but still have some of the standard BS National hives I started out with. I keep my bees in my garden and an out apiary site a few miles away.

Articles

General information on what to think about if you are getting started in beekeeping as well as advice  on apiary management. I try and rear my own queens using grafting and and a Cloake board. Go to Articles

Plans

Asection with the main plans that I use for building some of my hive equipment.I have built other stuff, such as a solar wax melter, oxalic acid vaopriser but not got around to uploading the plans. For the completed equipment articles go to Plans

Blog

I try and keep my beekeeping blog updated over the course of the season. I will post about my successes and failures as well as add to the articles and techniques section. I’ll also provide some information on the Yellow Legged Asian Hornet and news on the current situation.