Tagged with: Bees
Posts (9)
Heather honey and hard work
Fran Barnes
Picture the scene. Blue sky... singing birds... the rolling Derbyshire moorland covered in a blushing pink eiderdown as beekeepers across the country arrive for the annual ritual of taking the bees to the heather. That's how it should have been on that August day when the Farming Today bees ar...
The Farming Today bees in living colour!
Chris Impey
The Farming Today bees are on holiday in Derbyshire. Fran and Clive (our beekeeping mentor) took them up to the moors one rainy night. They're on a farm feeding off the heather. We're hoping, all being well, this well produce a crop of very rich tasting honey. They've been away a few weeks now a...
How to stop your bees leaving home
Chris Impey
We may only have had our bees a couple of months, but they're already thinking of leaving us. Bees swarm as a natural way of increasing their numbers - typically over half of the colony will leave. But we don't want to lose so many of them just as they're starting to make us honey. They've been...
When Farming Today bees go bad
Fran Barnes
It was all going so well when I first arrived at the apiary to do another routine check on the Farming Today beehive. There was a light breeze, the sky was blue, the birds were singing. I was just admiring the view and the wildlife when it happened. I wasn't anywhere near a hive and hadn't had ...
Honey cake help!
Charlotte Smith
Editor's note: I know I said that the Farming Today bees were off to their own blog a little while ago but we've now decided that they should stay here, on the Radio 4 blog, for the rest of the season. We've grown attached to them (and we like the honey). And, in a follow-up email, Charlotte app...
Keeping the Farming Today bees occupied
Fran Barnes
"The bees will beat us you know", our bee mentor, Clive Joyce, sagely told me yesterday while we tried, yet again, to stop the Farming Today beehive swarming. Clive is usually the voice of optimism, but even he - when faced with more Queen Cells than he's ever seen - is preparing to face up to t...
The Farming Today bees again
Chris Impey
The Farming Today bees are getting their own blog over on the Farming Today web site. While they're finishing off the design, Chris Impey and Fran Barnes, producers and trainee beekeepers, bring us news from the hive: When Fran and I started this project we thought it would be an age before we ...
More from the Farming Today Bees
Steve Bowbrick
Head of Interactive, Radio 3
Fran Barnes, a producer on the programme and half of the intrepid bee team, has sent me a second installment in the Farming Today bee saga. I'm posting it on her behalf this time but she'll contribute directly in future and the programme team are planning a blog of their own: "Just taken Charlo...
The Farming Today beehive
Chris Impey
Chris Impey and Fran Barnes from Farming Today have been learning the art of beekeeping for a year-long project. They've acquired a hive and a colony of bees, which they're keeping at the British Beekeepers' Association apiary at the National Agricultural Centre in Warwickshire. They're going to...
