Alison and I went to Harrogate on Saturday and spent the day building a couple of beehives. Alison hasn’t done any form of wood workery before and she did a really good job of putting her hive together, although her hammering technique was a tad amusing, but then again, as she’s never had to use a hammer before why should she know?

Me? Well, I’m a professional (mechanic and DBA) and I managed to get a bit of mine glued and nailed into the wrong location and, I think, upside down as well! Duh! A quick bash with a hammer and chisel and it was retrieved ready to be fixed onto the right place.

At present the hives are store in the garage and are exuding a very pleasant “woody” smell. Hopefully soon we will get them into the garden and full of bees.

For details of bee keeping in the West Yorkshire area, check out http://www.hrbka.org.uk/ which is, if I do say so myself, a rather fine website.

We also prepared for the arrival of our new workers by purchasing a smoker, a hive tool, some frames and foundation (for the brood box) from Claro Bees and ordering a couple of rather natty jackets with a built in veil. Both in bridal white as well so we shall look very dashing indeed!

Claro Bees is an intersting shop. It looks like a portakabin!

Cheers.