On Bovey Heath with Brigit Strawbridge Howard

We were on the Bovey Heathfield Nature Reserve, near Bovey Tracey in Devon, looking for Heath Potter Wasps with the noted naturalist John Walters, so I took the opportunity to record a short interview... Brigit's new book, Dancing with Bees, is published by Chelsea Green and available fromhttp://beestrawbridge.blogspot.com

Episode 81

Ragna invited me to Norway to talk to beekeepers about the possibility of using different ways to look after bees, and different hives, including, of course, the top bar hive. I had a very enjoyable week in this beautiful country, thanks to my hosts Ragna Jorgensen and Joshua, who will feature in the next podcast, once I have finished editing our long discussion in the car, while driving around the stunning north western coastline of Norway. This recording was made in the woods outside Oslo, and I made the mistake of leaving my phone switched on (and receiving a swarm call) so please excuse the occasional radio frequency interference that this caused in my audio recorder.

Episode 80

The Asian Yellow-Legged Hornet, Vespa velutina, is a serious threat to bees and beekeeping in Britain, given its predatory nature and the fact that a large nest may contain 10-12,000 hungry insects. It also poses a secondary threat to birds and bats, as it has the ability to consume massive numbers of their prey, while themselves being virtually immune from attack by any of our native species. PLEASE LEARN ABOUT THIS DANGEROUS PEST and look out for news about it, preferably by checking the news page on https://friendsofthebees.organd don't rely on newspapers, which regularly feature pictures of the wrong species. There is an Android app called "Asian Hornet Watch" that makes identification and reporting easy: this is an invasive non-native species that must be reported tohttp://www.brc.ac.uk/risc/alert.php?species=asian_hornet If you use FaceBook, look for my page "Defending Britain Against the Asian Hornet" for news and updates.

Episode 79

I hosted this discussion with about 25 other beekeepers at the Eden Project in Cornwall as part of the BIBBA SW Conference Febriary 16 2019.

Episode 78

A talk from the 2018 BIBBA conference

Episode 77

Jim Ryan is a beekeeper with many years under his belt, who is not afraid to admit to making mistakes. He is current chair of the Galtee Bee Breeders. This talk was recorded at the 2018 BIBBA conference in Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Episode 76

The ZEST hive is unusual in that it is made from solid building blocks arranged to form a long, deep container, with multiple, upper entrances. It is easy and relatively inexpensive to build, with the help of Bill's web site - www.thezesthive.com- and his YouTube videos.

Episode 75

Episode 74

Willie Robson and his family have been keeping bees in Northumberland since the 1950s. Few people know more than he does about honey farming with the native black bee, and fewer still have successfully kept them for so long in a commercial context. This is one of two talks by Willie that I recorded at the 2018 BIBBA conference in Cirencester. The Robson family run Chainbridge Honey Farm and you can see their web site athttps://www.chainbridgehoney.com

Episode 73

Bryn Simon, President of Sydney Inner West Beekeepers, NSW, Australia, was in the UK and asked if he could visit and ask me some questions. The sound quality is not perfect: there was a fair bit of background noise from road drills and seagulls, and I had the gain turned up a little too high, but if you can overlook that, we had a good chat about bees and beekeeping.