Updated: Feb 6, 2023
Bees are essential to life and are frankly fascinating. They come in a range of colours and sizes but all do something very fundamental ‘Pollination’, which is the transfer of pollen to a stigma, ovule flower or plant allowing it to fertilise. Fertilisation turns the ovules to seeds allowing more wondrous plants to grow. Additionally, to this vital process they propagate, they also produce honey, which as I am sure you know is a delicious, sweet food with many uses. Finally, they are an incredible species that work together in huge colonies for their survival. So if you don’t think bees are vital for our planet survival, form incredible interesting organisation, produce your favourite substance (honey) and are fascinating in many other ways I am not quite sure what your still doing here. However, if you do find bees as fascinating as me and want learn more, here is what I learnt and my experience from a bee keeping taster day.
What is a bee keeping taster day?
A bee keeping taster day is essentially just that. It is a day you can learn about bees in general and the most iconic of which is the honey bee and what it is like to be a beekeeper for a day.
What to expect from a typical taster day?
Now, this is my experience of a beekeeper taster day and the things I learnt. My taster day took part in the back garden of a beekeeper. The garden was a good size but by no means huge and as we sat and had a cup of tea for our introduction there was no bee in sight. I learnt this was because of the way the entrances of the bee hives were oriented away from the house and large hedges acted as barriers that meant bees would be unlikely to fly towards the house. After the briefing and an introduction to bees we got to try on the stereotypical bee gear with our own pair of latex washing up gloves. Yes, latex gloves are an easy way to protect your hands and stop them getting sticky. We then went down to the hives to look at the massive colonies the bees have formed, used the tools (Hive tool) to open up the hive and find the queen bee. It was a great and unique experience, where I did not get stung at all. Throughout the day we were taught lots of fact and information about bees and there care. Here is what I learnt about bees:
What I learnt about bees!
Bees have survived for a long time without the intervention of human help, so surely we don’t need to do anything correct? Wrong, largely due to industrial agricultural, parasites/pathogens and climate change bee’s population are in decline. Due to us contributing to their decline we should be responsible to mitigate and stop this. Through bee keeping bees numbers can increase, as it gives them safe and secure place to live, their colonies to grow and a better chance of survival.
Additionally, I learnt the rough structure of a typical hive, which consists of a elevated platform, the bottom board with entrance, two hive bodies one typically for brood and another for food, a honey super (another body section for the bees to create more honey, the frames to create the cells for honey and brood on to, an inner cover (crown board) and a outer cover (roof). Additionally, a queen excluder can be used to prevent the queen traveling through to the supers and laying brood there.
Usually, a hive will have one queen, which is identified by its longer abdomen but commercially is often highlighted with a non-toxic marker. The queen is raised from larvae selected by the worker bees and only fed royal jelly until sexually mature. The queen larvae will be identified by a queen cup, which is a larger abnormal cell. If queen cups (cells) begin to form it is a sign that the bees might be swarming.
The hive and colony can have as many as 20,000 to 80,000 bees. The majority of these will be worker bees, which are all females. These come from the brood, which means bees larvae. The remaining bees that are male are called drones. The drones don’t have stinger or gather nectar or pollen. Their whole role is to mate with an unfertile queen. If there is no unfertile queen the drone is essentially pointless.
Taking their honey is bad, right? Wrong again, sort of. Bees eat the honey to survive and during the winter when they hibernate they use the honey as a reserve to get them through the colder months. An experienced beekeeper should be able to take the surplus honey they produce and leave enough honey for them to survive over the winter. Additionally, beekeepers can add other sources to the hive to help them, such as a sugar water solution. The amount of honey a beekeeper can obtain from a single hive does differ depending on its size and age but approximately 20 to 60 pounds could be gathered over a year.
What’s the typical hive?
I have mentioned the typical hive layout (structure) above but there are multiple different types that can be used. Here are just a few different types of hives:
British National Hive is one of the most commonly used hives in the UK;
Langstroth Hive is one of the most popular hives around the world named after its designer;
Top-bar hives is a simple hive to make yourself and are relatively affordable. However, It cannot hold as many bees and is not expandable.;
Skep Hives are historical hives that are typically made from wicker and still in use today.
They all have their own advantages and disadvantages that may make them appropriate for you but you should do your research before purchasing one. For many it depends on what hive you used when learning bee keeping.
Flow Hive
The Flow Hive is a hive that was made popular through a crowd funding website. Its unique structure allows the beekeeper to break the plastic cells and tap off the honey without opening up the hive. However, this is not good for the bees, as it will ruin the brood and doesn't allow for properly checking the hive. This can be overcome by not breaking all the cells but may require you to open the hive and take out the frames to see what ones have brood and honey. There is ongoing debates to whether the newest ‘revolutionary’ Flow Hive is good for bee keeping and for bees but this is down to personal preference and experience.
What is swarming?
Swarming is when a queen bee and the majority of bees will go to a different location. There are a number of reasons why bees swarm but it mainly comes down to not having enough space and the bee colony thinking the current queen is not good enough.
Common signs of swarming are:
The colony will have a large number of adult bees ready for the swarm;
The hive will have large amounts of brood (usually, 8+ frames);
The hive will be over populated;
Queen cells will emerge.
Ways to help preventing swarming are:
Give additional brood boxes and hive space to the colony;
Take out queen cells (cups) before additional queens hatch.
There are also three in-depth methods that can be used to control swarming which are:
The Pagden Method
The Snelgrove Method
The Horsely Method
But my introduction course did not go into depth with these. However, it was noted that swarming leads to a weaker colony that may not survive. Additionally, for commercial beekeepers it means that the honey harvest will be poor.
Is bee keeping good?
Well in my opinion yes and this comes down to the threat we pose to bees today. Bee keeping increases the population of bees and gives them a better chance in the winter, controls them swarming and gives them a safe place to grow and thrive. Additionally to this, the increase in population of bees helps the local plant life and agriculture. Having said this, it is dependent on the bee keeper and how the bees are kept and treated through their life to whether this is achieved ethically. For example on my experience no smoker was used when handling the hives, frames and bees.
Overall, beekeeping is a fascinating and unique hobby with a great community with even better benefits if you love honey. If you have an interest in bees and bee keeping I would recommend a beekeeper tasting day to learn and experience what it’s really like keeping bees. Even if you don’t want to become a beekeeper you can still learn a ton about how they are cared for. Additionally, you can still help hundreds of solitary bees in your back garden, so check out my other posts on that.
Updated: Feb 6, 2023
Electric cars are becoming ever more popular, they are getting better looking, sustainable, economical and are clearly becoming the future of automobiles. Even recently, Volvo have announced that they aim to only produce electric cars by 2019. In this post, I have looked through several electric cars available at the moment and their aesthetics, cost and size to pick my favourite cars. I want to make it clear, I have never driven any of these care but are my opinion of the best from their looks, specs and reviews. Anyway, electric cars are not just great because of their sustainability but also economically, as to recharge an electric car is often much cheaper than a petrol or diesel one. Additionally, they have great tax benefits and many options of government grants, as well as being incredibly eco-friendly with little to no omissions. For this reason and more, you should get an electric car and here are my favourites you might want to consider. Although these are all fairly expensive, as any new car is now days, I have primarily looked at cars that will be used by the public and not the most expensive car only affordable to the extremely wealthy. Here are my top picks for electrical cars:
Volkswagen e-Up
The Volkswagen e-Up is a great quick run around electric car packed with a ton of technology crammed in to the a typical clean Volkswagen interior look. It is well spaced, has alloy wheels and achieved good long-range ability for an electric car. Additionally, it has four doors, which is increasingly rare for newer cars.
Number of doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £25,000
Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf is a spacious family hatchback that gives a quiet comfortable ride. It again has great interior with large windows to let tons of light in to ‘emerge you into your driving experience’. It is reliable, as it included a number of safety features, which is a bonus. Lastly, you have the option to upgrade it to have even more gadgets to make it more high tech than the base model.
Number of doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £17,000
Volkswagen e-Golf
The second Volkswagen on this list gives a clean smooth drive but also provides spurts of power to give an excellent drive around the city centre. It has a fairly large battery for an electric car and has the ability to be charged at home from a three-pin connector. It comes with the usual beautiful Golf interior with some added highlights and features in easy to reach location. It is more spacious than other cars on this list, comes with 16inch alloy wheels, simple to use technological features and a brilliant car for its price.
Number of doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £25,000
BMW i3
Now the BMW i3 is on the more luxurious side of electric cars and full of innovation with a unique, easily identifiable look that whizzes through the street with its electric blue accents. It comes with new light weight carbonfibre-reinforces plastic (CFRP) body, has large windscreen and appealing light interior. It has the typical electrical systems from satnav to Bluetooth but also includes heated seats. It has a tons of power and in the case of emergency a backup petrol powered generator to complete this brilliant package.
Number of doors: 2 & two halves
Starting price approximately: £32,000
Renault Zoe
The Renault Zoe is one of the cheapest electric cars on the market. It is a great urban car brilliant for short journeys and running around your local town. It is an easy to use car with a typical appearance for new low budget cars on the streets today. It has good weight when driving and a nice updated interior with a fair number of gadgets including a touchscreen satnav and Bluetooth. Overall it is a quiet, classy, affordable electric care that you can pick up.
Number of doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £15,000+ (depending on model)
Tesla Model S
Tesla the well-known increasingly famous car of the future made by the new technology god, Elon Musk. This is by far the best looking car on the list but also has the price to match. As expected it comes packed with technology and gizmos in the futuristic cockpit of this high-end luxury car. This absolutely stunning car has room for your luggage and for adults to sit in the back, comes with great boosts of speed, brilliant steering and will easily get you notices.
Number of doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £60,000
Tesla Model 3
Another next level creation by Elon Musk but made for the general consumer and made to be mass produced. Here Tesla offer the Model 3. Again this is one of the best looking cars on the list with its sporty sedan look with some cool features, as mentioned above including the great autopilot mode. This is still incredibly stylish and screams modern high tech super car. It has Tesla’s iconic sloping roofline and a nice open window area. This is a bit more affordable than the above but still not the cheapest on the list but it is a Tesla after all.
Number of Doors: 4
Starting price approximately: £35,000
Electric cars are speeding into the fast lane both literally and metaphorically. The electric car industry is currently blooming and with encouragement from many governments is defiantly a strong consideration when buying your next car. Cars are probably the second largest asset you will buy in your life, so you want one that is reliable and future proof. I am incredibly excited to see the future of electric cars and the brilliant inventions that are sure to be coming out soon. We hope that the list above gave you some options for a potential purchase or just to get you thinking of the future of the automobile industry.
Updated: Jul 18, 2023
Okay so you want to get started in your garden or always state that ‘your garden is too small to do anything in’. Well, whether you want to become a green fingered know it all, miniature farmer, help the bees or just love the beauty of a garden and want to enhance this as much as possible the size of your garden should not stop you. I understand that you can run into a problem if your garden is not the larges size but this should not stop you from making the most of it. Additionally, if you have no garden at all you can still do a lot to grow some wondrous plants. Today's, technologies and methods able you to fully utilise your property to meet all your growing needs. Examples of amazing use of small space can be highlighted in the famous Chelsea Flower Show, which although it may still be bigger than your backyard shows you some amazing things you can achieve in a confined space. I am writing this not just from a research perspective but as I have recently moved into my own property the garden is a bit limited on space. So if you are in a similar position such as those on new housing development with ever shrinking gardens or you only have a small balcony on your flat or you have no garden at all; here is my advice and tips you can use to get the most out of your limited area:
Vertical space:
This is defiantly the best option and easy to do. Although the area of your garden may not be the greatest but you still have the space upwards. You can add a lot of space to your garden by utilising vertical space throughout your garden. You can implement some of the following methods:
Stacking system – You can now get pots that can stack on top of each other and then grow all around them. Stack them to a height that suits you and put in a number of plants you want.
Rack system – This is similar to the stacking system but is racked, meaning it is often not on top of each other and takes up a little bit more space. However, can be great use of space and allows you access to your plants without bending down.
Trellis – A trellis is a framework that can be used for climbing plants to attache to. Add one to provide some green up your walls or fences.
Wall mounted – There are many systems that can be implemented onto the wall or fence and then have a number of pots or troughs added to them to grow in.
Hanging pots – Much like the wall mounted system, wall hooks can be put on the wall and stunning pot full of flowers can hang on them.
High plants – There are a large number of plants that naturally grow upwards, so get a few of those to add more colour to your garden.
Don’t stick to the back garden:
This is a frustrating one because it is so obvious but often overlooked. You can utilise your front garden just as much as your back. In many cased your front garden could even be larger than your back, so why not make the use of this space. However, there are is a ton of space that you can use and plant a large number of plants in. Whether you are putting in some flowers beds or adding a large shrub, start planting in your front garden. Although it is rare it can even be used to grow any fruits or vegetables, so make sure to use this space.
Don’t stick to the outside:
Okay, you have got as much use out of your garden or you don’t have a garden but you still want to grow many plants. Well simply, move inside where there is tons of space you can use. Even though part of gardening is being outside and enjoying the sun you can still bring some of that beautiful and usefulness indoors. You can grow a great amount indoors to brighten up your space and create amazing ‘décor’ to improve your home. Additionally, you can grow a number of plants that you can eat and grow; most the herbs I grow are indoors. Implementing plants into your life has been shown to have many psychological improvements to the people who view them, so even if you don’t have a garden you should defiantly add some plants into your house.
Get Creative:
Now this can be anything and even included the above I have mentioned but you should really try to think outside the box. You could turn your shed into a green roof or creating a platform above a bin areas to other elaborate and interesting structures all designed to make more space for you to grow whatever you want.
Get an allotment:
Finally, if you don’t have a garden at all or it is extremely lacking space, get on a list to get an allotment. An allotment is often quite cheap and can be used for the majority of your garden needs or desires. They can be considerable size, come with a shed, maybe even a green house and is perfect to grow fruit and veg. A bonus with this is that there is often many people their who can also help you with whatever you want to grow.
I want to see more people get out and enjoy the environment, wildlife and importantly plants. Not just for the benefits of the environment and wildlife but also due to the psychological and health benefits many studies have stated and that I believe you can get from viewing plants. However, I am sure you are already interested in growing your own food, beautiful flower and other plants but may be struggling to achieve this due to the space you have. Well don’t let anything stop you and make the most of what you have through using some of my tips above. Whether you use vertical space, bring it indoors, get an allotment or come up with a new place to grow what you love. Whatever it is make sure to get growing. Send me what you have done to make the most of your space via my Social Medias (Up there, right corner!).
