I have been keeping bees since 2017. A few years prior to that I picked up a book on them at a friend’s house and was so fascinated I had no choice but to attend the winter lecture series and then get a few bees for myself. Since then it has got completely out of control with more than ten hives, and I’m not sure what I did with my time before bees.
Continue reading “Jamie Evans”
Tributes to Lindsey from Olya, John, and Joan (edited):
Olya Kurasova Macaulay
The first time I saw Lindsey he looked strict and serious – but I soon learned that he could smile and laugh and had a terrific sense of humour. He was openhearted, honest and generous, and I had no doubt that he was a person I could fully trust and rely on.
[Edited article – first published in ADBKA August Newsletter.]
My Grandfathers kept bees as did my Great Grandfathers on both sides of my family. When I was about eight years old in the 1970’s my father decided he would like to keep bees. He had the romantic idea that he could be sitting at the breakfast table where he’d announce to me to ‘fetch a fresh section of honey from the bee hive’ at which point I would rise from the table and walk to the hive and simply lift the lid and take one out before returning to the breakfast table to enjoy the honey.
Twenty-five years ago, if anyone had said I’d become a beekeeper I would have thought they didn’t know me very well. It would never have crossed my mind nor compared with my other interests. Then one day my elder daughter came home from school with a children’s book about honey bees. That caught my wife’s attention and she found out about, and started to attend, the ADBKA introductory course. However, she wasn’t so keen on diseases and pests so I said I would attend that week so that we at least had the knowledge in the house. I ended up completing the course (and in fact did it all again the following year), but although I was interested, I still wasn’t entirely sure beekeeping was for me.
I come from the Caucasus region of southern Russia – from the resort town of Sochi which has a sub-tropical climate and is not like the frozen north that people associate with Russia. In the Caucasus region beekeeping is very popular and there are many large-scale bee-farms where they harvest honey and breed bees for export around the world. My parents are honey lovers and still buy it in 3 kg jars, which is a traditional container in Russia for many products. In recent years I have taken Aberdeenshire heather-honey to my parents and other family members in Sochi which they enjoyed. On one trip to Sochi, I carried 15 kg of honey to the great shock and amusement of customs officers. [Read more about the trip in the January 2018 Newsletter.] Continue reading “Olya Macaulay”
Committee member for four years.
My first introduction into beekeeping started from my father in law who used to keep bees in the 1970s and had nine colonies in National Hives, he was a member of the Angus Beekeepers association. Being a joiner and carpenter by profession my initial interest was in the construction and maintenance of my father in law’s hives but invariably I began to help with the management of the colonies.
My father adored honey and kept bees when I was a child although I only have a memory of that. I had never considered keeping bees and actually do not even like honey.
I completed the ADBKA series of lectures at the end of 2013 and then joined ADBKA at the start of 2014. I purchased our first colony in May 2014. I am still on a massive learning curve.
I am a retired oil industry safety officer, and have been keeping bees at various sites north of Ellon for fifteen years. Over this period I have worked my way through the SBA exam system, eventually completing the apiarian exam in 2024. I served as secretary and then chair of the Association from 2017 until 2022. I enjoy sharing information about bees with beginners and young people, especially through primary school visits.
[Updated: 28 April 2025]
This is my fifth year of keeping bees and being a member of the association. This is not however my first brush with beekeeping as my grandfather kept bees and I used to help him with them as a teenager back in the 70’s until I joined the army. Continue reading “Erling Watt”
