ETHICAL BEE Company

This week I searched three of my hives for a Queen who was to accompany 5 frames of brood that had been boxed up this week to be sold. In one hive I spotted one. She was elusive and knew the minute the hive had been manipulated someone was after her, so scuttled away into some double layered comb never to be seen again. Needless to say my customer has been left waiting and his intended brood ended up in Ragdale, a tiny village in Leicestershire. Such are the joys of beekeepin

I read an article recently that claimed that there were too many bee’s in London to support the amount of forage available. London is simply one worldwide capital and the UK like other countries has many provincial cities. You do not often hear about Bee’s in Birmingham, City Centre bee’s encouraged in Nottingham or Leicester. Yet I read pessimism stating that there are too many bee keepers in our capital. Without putting my neck on the line I have to disagree with the said a

As you are aware Ethical Bee Co will be selling over wintered bee’s with new good queens this year. The process is simple you call up to order bee’s, offer your details, address, telephone number and arrange bank transfer of funds by taking our bank details. We take the order and then in eight to ten weeks time or when the winterized bees are ready they will be posted and delivered to your door ready for you to house them yourself. They will arrive with instructions, in case

If you have been following the progress of the Ethical Bee company you will know that we have gone from strength to strength since the apiary was opened. Last summer we had 14 hives, yet sadly we lost three to disease infestation towards the end of the summer, which can easily happen. The bee’s were all fed with winter fondant based food supplies to ensure their survival before Christmas as we all enjoyed our festivities, as well as wrapped up for winter with polystyrene and

I have been asked to give training this winter, so for the advanced programme price of 14 hours the course will be £210 per person. Here is a taster of what is to follow Bee Basics You must be able to identify parts of the hive Understand biology And manage your hives These are the three most important parts to Bee Basics as far as I am concerned. Bee lucky #peterklauza #beekeeping #ethicalbeecompany

A day in four pictures. I’m investing for 2022, so are you ready to become an enthusiastic beekeeper? Do you have the potential to do some good by helping our planet planet? Through keeping bee's you will help pollination and I will pass on my love of bee’s and the incredible work they do to you with my expertise and training. I have spoke to Georgina over the telephone many times over the last few years and she is my favourite sales assistant from my wholesale supplier of

Every time I mention my bee’s people ask me about honey. Some people claim its unethical to extract or steal honey from a bee hive. Bee’s are the only insect that create a surplus of food for storage over time, i.e. honey. I’m taking surplus honey from my hives that the bee’s don’t actually need, so am I really stealing from my bees? My answer is that I only extract the extra surplus from my hives. My bee’s main purpose is not to produce honey, it is to pollinate plants in my

Last week I gave a one to one course to Stephan, this customer was the best trainee bee keeper I’ve met over the last few years. We discovered two hives, queen-less ,and the Wax moth had moved in and had decimated 6 frames with six horrible larvae and spin-web everywhere. The grubs, that would make great fishing line maggots, were squirming around after I split two frames that lacked bees thanks to the mothy web and uninvited invader. I had to burn the frames and re-house so

You’ve done everything right. There is activity around your hive. Your bee’s have survived the winter. As Spring approaches we have not passed the beginning of the new bee season yet, but I have already done some housekeeping. Your bee’s will create a mess over the winter inside their hive, and the floor of the hive may need wiping. Me being as keen as mustard my bee’s have already had their spring clean, this has already been done before any Spring hive inspection. Sadly I h

Keep it simple folks and keep learning...... A healthy bee colony may not want to leave its home territory. Its society is established, its learning done, its Queen in her glory nursing her hierachy of workers. Seasonal Temperatures affect Bee Activity on a daily basis. We are well into August now and it is very changeable for bee's. What does this mean to you? It means your bee colonies may struggle. Why? Wind Rain Pesticide Use Cyclical unpredictable weather cycles Less to

It’s been a fortnight since my last hive inspections and the successful course I gave in June. During my last course this is what my course participents said " Would recommend the course to others " "It was worth more than £30" "What a Fantastic Day " " I learned so much" With such great feedback from the attendee’s, why not sign up for my next course in August? The weather over the last few last days has been mixed after a lovely few days Many

It’s been a fortnight since my last hive inspections and the last successful course I delivered from my apiary, getting great feedback from the enthusiatic course attendee’s. The weather over the last ten days has been poor which means the bee’s do not wish to leave their hives. They have been left to their own devices, but I did a quick check of a couple of hives this morning to see why things were so quiet. In the hive that had been split a fortnight ago, all the bee’s only

Saturday 27th June proved to be a highly successful training day. Everyone enjoyed themselves, which is what bee keeping is all about. A bee convention took place with a lot of knowledge being shared by several new bee keepers. It was a great opportunity for people interested in bee keeping to learn lots. The days training session was broken up due to poor weather conditions, pouring rain for much of the day actually. At midday the rain temporarily stopped and the course atte

Today was a day for making observations. This is early in the season, but sadly something is not right, and if people have not woken up to the fact that things are not right, then ‘Wakey, Wakey. I don’t like to politicise anything, but adverse seasonal adjustments have taken place, I don’t like the notion of climate change, seasons really have adjusted across the whole planet, there is no doubt about it. A new colony of bees needs to forage. They need to fly around fields, ga

There have been swarms of bee's in the Sainsbury's on Melton Road Leicester recently, if only someone had given me a call. You can't bee FREE bee's. They swarm because they are breeding and may have been mismanged. Swarms only usually occur in April and May, but we can blame the government for this one, as I guess the lock down has affected peoples abilities to manage their bee's. As well as bee's swarming activity it seems people's behaviour in supermarkets has changed as we

We’ve had fake News, we now we have fake lawns. Artificial lawns like this one , smell, burn, need hosing down, they are expensive and bad for the environment. Seriously…bad, and the average cost of an artificial lawn is high. You will not find any wildlife, nor bee’s no pollination, the soil beneath the layer will become stagnated and become contaminated over time. Artificial grass last’s only, 10 – 15 years, the life of an average dog. What’s more, its made of plastic. Have

Real freedom is a choice. A choice to make a decision. The Queen had a choice – to fly and be free forever, and take a risk, or to re-house. What choice did the the Queen actually make? It was an even, each way bet. I am happy, because my Queen got to experience freedom. Perhaps a beginners mistake, was made however it my mind it was a controlled experiment. You don’t make breakthroughs by hitting your head against a brick wall forever. It will certainly be an interesting yea

If you are in Leicester and see this activity please call me.... It will be the formation of a new brood. You cannot control nature. People think they can. This morning I made what could be a mistake. I let a Queen go. She will be in flight somewhere, but the truth is a true Queen has to fly to mate, otherwise she will never have lived. This Queen is mature and believe it or not is worth money. Like caged chickens, and factory farming, at least my Queen knew what it was to be

It takes weeks to build a custom hive. Each one is individually commissioned. This one is insulated and has been built over a period of 4 weeks. over a week to put a hive together. The price of hardwood is expensive and it depleats our already seriously de-forested planet. The hives are based on a langstroth design, but are insulated and double walled, so a hardwood is not necessary. This takes a lot longer to build than a single walled unit. The bee's live in frames, usually

Filtering the honey