I moved from Norwich to South Lopham (opposite Redgrave and ~Lopham Fen) in 2020. The uninterrupted forage and the poor state of the land I had acquired, inspired me to start keeping bees. I did a short course with Waveney bee keepers and within a couple of months I had a couple of hives in my apiary. 

My journey into bee keeping was a bumpy one resulting in the loss of my first two hives. luckily met an experienced local bee keeper who nursed my practice and introduced me to my local bee club, Dicklebees of which I am now the club secretary. This immersion gave me the confidence to start collecting swarms in my area and proceed with more hives. I am officially hooked on bees and their welfare. The energy and smell of pheromones when you open a hive has a distinct individual imprint that is totally different from its neighbour. my feeling is that each hive is an expression of the divine feminine principle, so powerful and awesome in its heightened energy of the summer sun. The sound they make is an ethereal song to the land they inhabit and the flowers and trees they forage on. The worker Bee starts and spends most of her life in the darkness of the hive, travelling through each job as she matures. Nursing, building wax, repairing comb, defending the hive, regulating the temperature, until finally in the last weeks of her life she leaves the hive as a forager bee to insure the survival of the colony and to keep the queen laying. Travelling up to three miles to gather pollen, nectar and water, she will toil tirelessly until the sun sets. I do miss them while they overwinter and try not to worry too much about them. They are wild insects after all!

Summer 2024 was spent chasing the bees. never having enough equipment at the right time led me to take the plunge and invest in some bee equipment ( with the kind support of keith and Nicky Roberts) and have become a re-seller for Simon the Beekeeper. My aim is to support and supply equipment and anything bee related to local bee keepers and club members. Summer 2024 was my most productive for honey. I have been able to produce, soft set, runny, creamed and cut comb and honey mustard. The positive feed back from both hay fever suffers and those with chest infections and coughs has been very encouraging as honey is filled with nutrients, anti bacterial, anti inflammatory and anti oxidant properties. I find it particularly good on skin burns and wounds.