The First Season: Learning to Keep Bees

1. The Village Litter Pick

2. The First Hive Inspection

3. The Beekeeping Course

4. Saturdays At The Apiary

5. My First Swarm

6. When Disease Struck

7. Liquid Gold - Honey Harvest

8. Closing Down The Season

9. Preparing For My First Colony

10. The Season That Started It All

Over the moon when my B. J. Sherriff suit arrived! - June 2025

My first year of beekeeping began with a litter pick.

One invitation.

One Saturday at an apiary.

Twelve months later I’d seen disease, lost a swarm, reduced entrances against wasp robbing, harvested honey, entered a show, and built two cedar hives engraved with my grandparents’ names.

This is the story of my first season keeping bees.

No polish.

No pretending.

Just how it unfolded.

Spring is has arrived. And this time, they’re mine.

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Next Time →

There were no bees in sight.

That worried me more than I expected.

The first inspection of the season was about to begin.