The Bee Side:
Where you can find more about bees, arrange an apiary visit and find tips and recipes for working with products of the hive
New! Online lecture recordings
January 9, 2021
These are the recordings of two lectures I gave to the Barnet Beekeepers beginners in 2021.
The first covers the honey bee colony, the development and role of the worker, drone and queen bee, and how the colony overwinters as a super-organism.
The honey bee colony - Part II
The honey bee colony - Part III
The second lecture focuses principally on Varroa Destructor, but also covers other pests and diseases of the adult honey bee.
part II - Nosema, Wax Moth and the Asian Hornet
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Books about bees
Sometimes I get asked about books on bees. Â Here are a few cool ones.
Tom Seeley is a great expert on bees who writes engagingly about the dynamics of the colony. You should read all of his books.
Le genie des abeilles is an amazing coffee table book full of gorgeous photos and crammed with interesting facts
A honey bee heart has 5 openings is an engaging memoir of a woman's first year as a beekeeper. It packs in a lot of beekeeping lore and history.
Go to Dr Sara Robb for make-at-home cosmetic recipes using honey and wax. Making your own shampoo and soap bars is great fun and easier than you think. She also gives amazing workshops.
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So you want to be a beekeeper?
It's fantastic but infuriating, expensive but rewarding.
There's a lot more to beekeeping than plonking bees into a box at the back of the garden. Letting a colony of bees go feral could do more harm than good.
If you are thinking of keeping bees, get trained first by one of your local associations. I am a member of the Barnet and District Beekeepers Association but you can also try North London Beekeepers or London Beekeepers
Visit the Apiary, it's free!
Between April and October, weather dependent.
If it's sunny, why not pop into he back garden and see the bees at work? These good people from Finchley_fy certainly had fun!
Cool Community Stuff
N2 is such a vibrant community, with some brilliant local initiatives I salute below.
N2 no to plastics is, well, against single use plastics in N2.
Finchley_fy and N2 United help you shop local and support independent businesses. As does Gifted Local for the Muswell Hill-Crouch End area.
Finchley Community Magazine is a new bi monthly mag bringing the community together.
And again, do get a piece of the amazing Dr Sara Robb if you want to make your own stuff using wax and honey.
Last but not least, read archives of the Archer .
My not so secret recipes
Because everyone should have a go - if they want to
Wax
The important thing with wax is not to overheat it, which denatures it. Melt it in a Bain Marie, I use a pyrex jug hung over the side of a saucepan. ​To store any leftovers, pour them into a plastic container coated with one drop of washing up liquid: this will help get the wax block out once cold.
For polish, mix 25g wax with 1/2 cup of olive oil
Lip balm is made of 1:3 to 1:5 ratio of wax to stable, nice smelling oils like jojoba, almond or coconut.
Candles use 1/2 cup coconut oil per 1lb of wax, and about 20 drops of essential oils.
Jam​
Jam is fruit which is slow stewed first to evaporate water, and then strained where necessary (blackberries, raspberries or currants). Cooked strained fruit is then boiled with an equal weight of sugar, until it reaches the magic temperature of 103 degrees C. You can faff around with cold plates to test setting, but in my experience a sugar thermometer saves a lot of aggravation. It really is that simple.
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My panforte draws the boys to the yard
It will only help you lose weight as part of a calorie controlled diet, but it's so worth it. Find the recipe here.
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