Author Archives: Emily Scott

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About Emily Scott

I am a UK beekeeper who has recently moved from London to windswept, wet Cornwall. I first started keeping bees in the Ealing Beekeepers Association’s local apiary in 2008, when I created this blog as a record for myself of my various beekeeping related disasters and - hopefully! - future successes.

Getting my bee-jo back

I didn’t post about the bees last weekend because I felt especially down about my beekeeping skills after an intense catalogue of failures on Saturday. First, I failed to find Queen Stella in my allotment bees, which would have been particularly useful … Continue reading

Posted in Colony management, Swarms | Tagged | 32 Comments

Inside an ancient bluebell wood

Today was the annual Perivale Wood bluebell open day. Most of the year the wood is closed unless you are a member, but in April each year thousands of people come to enjoy the bluebells. This year a record 2023 visitors came … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

Beekeeping – the frantic way

I think I can now safely say that all of our five colonies made it through winter. I am not completely satisfied with this result as two are small, only on about four to five frames. A perfect result would have … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 46 Comments

A box full of bees

My complaining about the weather worked – it has responded by sending sunshine and warmth our way. It has actually been so bonny that I have been walking around without my coat on! And thinking about getting my sunglasses out! This … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

Spring frustrations interlaced with flowers

The days just keep on coming – cold, wet, soggy, cloudy, gloomy. Occasionally it’ll be sunny and warmish and then we’ll be at work. So it’s been impossible to do a proper inspection of the bees for weeks. No chance … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Book review – Bees in the city by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum (2011)

It’s been a while since I did a bee book-review. Partly this is down to lack of time and partly because I’ve been busy reading lots of other books, as I’ve been catching up with new ones by several of … Continue reading

Posted in Urban beekeeping | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Summer bee / winter bee picture

Below is a drawing I did showing the difference between a winter and a summer bee’s abdomen. The colours are for fun and to show the different parts more distinctly, obviously the bee is not really pink, blue and yellow inside! … Continue reading

Posted in Bee biology | 41 Comments

Hunting for flowers and sunshine

Many days this week have been sunny and I’ve been able to enjoy sitting outside to eat my lunch, basking in the sunshine before descending back into what feels like a dark office. I have started spotting a few insects zooming … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Our 50:50 hives

50:50 because two are doing well and two not so well, and 50:50 because that’s probably the chance of the two doing not so well making it. Today was a magnificent spring day, sunny and warm, around 14ºC (57ºF) I believe. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

Will the honey flow for you?

Everyone who uses the internet has probably heard about the ‘Flow’ hive by now – www.honeyflow.com, “It’s Literally Honey on Tap Directly From Your Beehive!”. As I’ve never made a poll before, I thought this post would be a good chance to … Continue reading

Posted in Hive types, Honey | 85 Comments