He was born in 1932 and at school was interested in history. He was president of the beekeeping assocation in 1989. He was a physiologist, administrator, book dealer, writer and historian. His advice for beekeepers was simple:
Keep Going!
Very good advice indeed….as beekeeping is different every year and can offer some serious challenges for people taking it up and learning about the wonderful world of apais melliferia. (the European honey bee)
Karl started beekeeping in a Meadow where he never cut the grass. A young man came along and started cutting it so he moved the hive to a narrow cliff side ledge!
‘I suppose we are very relaxed about our beekeeping. Not seven day inspectors given to cutting out queen cells on sight’
‘We avoid getting into a fret about the bees .Our secret is to carry out inspections regularly so we know things will never get out of hand’
‘If the bee’s are happy and do not raise anger they will be left alone, if the are upset we seek to know why ‘
A stickler for detail, sadly Karl died last June aged 89.
Beekeeper numbers in the UK peaked in 1949 at 87,000 with 465,000 colonies, falling to 32,000 and 158,000 colonies in 1970. In 2022 we have approximately 250,000 colonies.
We need more beekeepers and bee’s in our fragile world so come and learn how to do a proper inspection and learn more about bee’s at my apiary and experience beekeeping first hand.
Visiting my apiary and seeing the bee's is a great idea for a day out or birthday experience. Hopefully you will come away buzzing, personally I am happy to adopt Karl’s ethos at the Ethical Bee Company. I welcome visitor's, prebooked to my site.
