I Am The Bee Man Goo Goo G'Joob

 I was having a pleasant lake swim with a nice chap I know the other day. Among the many interesting things we chatted about, he told me about his bee keeping. 

Many years ago I went to "bee school" for the day. An intro to bee keeping course that was held in a local village. It was fascinating, and like most things, there was more to it than I imagined. Given the positive environmental impact of bee hives and the prospect of limitless amounts of honey, I resolved that one day I would have some bees. Sadly, a nervous wife, concerned about the impact on our neighbours, meant that the project stalled. 

The chat with my friend re-ignited my enthusiasm though, and now that I had a perfect location, and a location that would be enhanced by the arrival of the stripy beasties, I had to act. 

I am a busy chap and I also like to go away a lot, so the idea of starting yet another hobby wasn't tempting. It meant ruling out going it alone. I knew from my earlier conversation that bee keepers are always looking for sites for their bees so I figured I would let a "third party" do the hard bit. A quick mess around on Facebook turned up a local Bee Keeping group which I joined and within 24hrs I was swapping text messages with "The Bee Man" and he had agreed to come for a reconnaissance visit (The Been Man is actually called David but I already had a David - my kind neighbour who helps me out with stuff, and The Bee Man sounds much better). 

The Bee Man confirmed the site was a good one and suggested 4x hives could go in the bottom of the field quite nicely. We agreed a spot and David installed bases for the hives and we awaited the visitors (when somebody reports a new swarm they can be captured and re-located at the bee keepers chosen site). 

Last year we had horses in the field to keep the grass down over the summer, The Horse Lady (not her real name) had a key for the gate which I needed to get back (we won't be having the horses back sadly as they will trash the trees). The Horse Lady agreed to hide the key in the dry stone wall at the top of the field so that I could pick it up. I mentioned to my eldest daughter that I was going to try and find they key from The Horse Lady and give it to The Bee Man, at which point she suggested that my life was like the sub plot from a teenagers role playing console game. I could see her point. 

Anyway,  after a couple of weeks I noticed new guests had arrived. 

The Bee Man has a land rover (a brilliant old school one) which means (a) he doesn't have to carry angry bees down the field by hand (b) we were able to prove that it definitely is possible to navigate the steps hills in the field in a 4wd (at least it is when it is dry). 

Given the cold weather, there isn't yet enough food for the bees to forage, so they are being supplemented with a bit of sugary water (they drink a lot of it, the clear container in the picture is what they get through). 

This means The Bee Man is visiting regularly. I like to have visitors and The Bee Man often brings his wife and also his adopted dog Sky. I do love an enthusiastic dog and Sky is very keen to chase a stick, she always raises a smile and I love seeing her there. 

A second hive has now arrived so there is a definite buzz about the place (sorry). They are well away from the footpath and the camping area though I have found that I can stand really quite close to the hive without protection and the residents really don't seem concerned. 

With the gorse and hawthorn in full flower, I am looking forward to trying some local honey made in my own field sometime soon.