About this site

There are two hives at the bottom of a small suburban garden, behind the shed and facing a fence, which keeps the flight path above head height and the neighbours on speaking terms. I started with one colony from a nucleus three springs ago and let a swarm catch turn it into two. The garden is ordinary: a lawn, a hedge, some fruit trees, and a lot of other people’s gardens within flying range.

These pages are my inspection notes written up properly, with the weights, temperatures and mite counts I would otherwise lose. I am a hobby keeper with a local association behind me and a great deal still to learn, and I write down the mistakes in particular, because a hive does not let you make the same one twice without consequences.