How I Became a Beekeeper

I recently wrote a series of posts on how I became a beekeeper as it’s a question I often get asked. Here are all the posts in one place -

As I've been talking a lot about getting started in beekeeping this week, and with the business turning 5 this month, I thought I should probably talk a little about how I began my beekeeping adventures!

There were a number of things that came together in one year that hinted to me that bees might be an interest..... we moved house to a home with a good sized garden, I saw a swarm of bees cross said garden and land in the orchard behind us, I attended BBC Gardeners World Live and saw the British Beekeeping stand with their bees and I also read the book by Santa Montefiore “The Beekeepers Daughter.”

All of these one-off occurrences got me thinking about beekeeping and so I started looking around for ways to learn more. At that time people didn't seem to offer the bee experiences that are available today and so I signed up for a full day introductory course which ended with a visit to some hives.

Next I popped along to a local beekeeping group's summer apiary meeting and got to see some more hives with bees and received my first, to my knowledge, honey bee sting!

Everyone was so welcoming and a little eccentric which appealed to me, the fact that the meeting ended with tea and cake made it an even more attractive proposition.

The first winter after my beekeeping encounters was full of research; reading, more courses, obsessing over the EH Thorne catalogue and eventually buying my starter kit of hives (I decided to opt for commercial brood boxes but national supers), suit, smoker and hive tool.

At 5ft8 I'm reasonably tall and also suffer from a poorly back from time to time, so the hubby and I (ok mostly the hubby at this point!) built a hive stand that was right for me so lifting the frames would be comfortable and my back could remain nice and straight... good posture and back health is a very important consideration, especially if you want to keep bees for many years to come!

Over the winter we built the hive; which was reasonably straightforward and then constructed the frames, which required a some video tutorials! Super boxes and frames were also built ready for the ever hopeful production of excess honey by my yet to be obtained bees.

During the winter I admit I also would put on the beekeeping suit and wander around the house in it pretending to know what I was doing under the pretence of "breaking it in"!

Once Spring arrived it wasn't long before my bees were welcomed into their new home and I officially became a beekeeper.

Oh my goodness, I just loved spending time with my bees. The farmer had given me a little patch of land to keep them as I wasn't confident enough to have them in my garden. Every week I'd fill the boot of my mini and drive the couple of miles to my apiary where I'd check in with the hives.

It wasn't all plain sailing, very early on I had been inspecting the bees each week and they were getting quite grumpy with me, so in turn I started getting more nervous each visit. One day I just froze at the hives, unable to move my arms to lift off the roof and even get inside, let alone try and lift out a frame! That day one of my mentors was with me and he asked if I'd like to just watch him, which I did and it was then I realised that the speedy in and out approach wasn't kind for the bees or me and that slow and steady would win the race.

I started to use my breathe each time I visited the bees. Taking some deep calming breathes before I opened the hive, methodically breathing in as I lifted a frame, and out as I scanned it's surface.

Eventually I became a calmer beekeeper and the bees seemed grateful for the more tortoise-like approach!

As my first year progressed I tried to gather as much information and experience as I could, I attended beekeeping meetings and more courses; like one on pests and diseases where we were shown diseased frames to help us identify problems in the future, something I still recall vividly, mostly because of the smell!

The mishaps continued with many stings and a smoking incident which resulted in me smoking my own face to move a bee from my veil only for her not to move and me left crying and coughing from smoke inhalation! ... and she didn't even move from the veil after all that!

By the end of my first year as a beekeeper I had two colonies and had even managed to take off some excess honey which was proudly shared with friends and family.

During the winter after my first season it became very clear that I was obsessed with the bees, I longed for the spring to arrive so I could spend more time with them.... so I did what any reasonable person would do in times like these; I found someone selling a load of bees and bought them!

The April finally arrived and notification that my bees would be delivered confirmed.... over the winter I'd talked to the farmer whose land I had the two hives on and we had arranged to rent a strip of field behind our house, we'd had it fenced off and I'd planted it with wildflower seeds and plugs. We built the hive stands and then the day arrived when I welcomed my new bees to our home apiary.

I had ordered 15 colonies and they came in their old hives, some included giant slugs and spiders too! I realise it was a rookie mistake not viewing the bees or doing much background on them before they were delivered but keenness got in the way of sense (I had researched a little and the bees were from a bee farmer who had also been a bee inspector so they were very nice bees indeed, thank goodness)! Slowly over the spring, each colony was given a new or refurbished hive and quickly honey supers were added and filled too!

By the end of my second spring I had increased my colonies further by collecting swarms and splitting my original two hives bringing the total number of hives in my second year from two to twenty two!

Very quickly my life became all about the bees, my summer was spent getting home from work as quickly as possible so that I could spend time with the bees before the sun went down.

I was encouraged by a good friend and mentor to complete my BBKA basic assessment and so I did, and was proud to not only pass but to also receive the Miss Avey award from our county association for getting top marks in the exam.

By the end of the summer I had also bought a further three colonies locally, bringing my total number of hives to 25. We had lots of honey to extract and this was when Sunnyfields became the brand name.

I had a few ideas on what to call my honey but in the end it was simple; I looked out of my office window which was on the front of our home, I saw the road sign for the lane opposite ours "Sunnyfields Road" and quite simply it felt right. My bees happily spent their days in the sunny fields, it sounded nice and was memorable.... my decade+ in brand marketing told me I should work on it more but my gut told me this was the name of my honey and so it stuck (excuse the pun!)

Life can take you on many adventures, good ones and bad. I prefer not to dwell on the bad side of life and like to just keep the good parts of the story when we can.

The good part of this next instalment was the decision to make a business from my bees. If you've read this far you'll have noted that the hobby very quickly became an all encompassing obsession

Just three years after properly starting my bee-education I was well and truly hooked, was approaching 30 hives and wanted to work with the bees full time, not just in my evenings and on weekends.

The decision was finally made on my 40th birthday and one month later I was unemployed and ready for my new challenge!

When I started learning about beekeeping I just thought it would be nice to have some bees.

When I started my business I thought it would be enjoyable to work with the bees.

Five years after starting my business I love to share my obsession with the bees!

After years of building my business I feel so lucky to be one of just a few hundred professional beekeepers in the UK. I take great pleasure in sharing my passion and knowledge with people interested in both becoming a beekeeper but also those interested in wildlife in general.

I still feel like I have lots to learn, I doubt I will ever feel like I know it all but I am proud to have come this far and love teaching and supporting beginners, as well as introducing nature lovers to the bees with my experiences and talks.

Each year the business grows and the bees teach me something new, at the moment my interest lays with the positive influence bees can have on mental health, this is amongst other things I'm obsessively swotting over when it comes to our buzzy pals such as creating thriving eco-systems and some other projects which will be revealed later!