Ian Mackley

Meet the ADBKA Committee Members

17-08 Iceland 620_edit-1Twenty 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 or compared with my other interests.  Then one day my daughter came home from junior school with a children’s book about honeybees. 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. Continue reading “Ian Mackley”

Murray McGregor – My Beekeeping Year, September – November

[This is the first of a series of articles based on interviews by Lindsey Macaulay and Olya Kurasova with Murray McGregor.]

My season starts in September when all my colonies are at the heather moors of Scotland waiting for us to harvest the honey crop.

The first thing we do is remove the bees from the honey crop within the hive. We do this by using a New Zealand type clearing board which normally clears all the bees in a matter of hours and, in my opinion, offers several advantages over the alternatives.  See Note 1.

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Thank you, Sandy and Lilian

Sandy and Lilian Gordon are finally hanging up the shop keys after running the Association Honey Jar Store for an astonishing 34 years! Over that time, many hundreds of ADBKA members will have visited Danestone Market Garden to borrow equipment or to stock up on jars, syrup, candy and more. No one went along without taking the chance to tap Sandy for advice and guidance on some or other beekeeping challenge, and our association has been enriched by his wisdom and experience.

Continue reading “Thank you, Sandy and Lilian”