Talking With Bees Gets Published

When I blogged “Bees RIP” I got three times as many hits as usual for a posting within a few hours.  I now understand why “there’s no news like bad news”.  However, I thought a sensationalist headline like “Talking With Bees Gets Published” might drum up some interest too.

But firstly, I’ll update you on the bees – yes, I actually have bees again.  Hive One: a Queen should have hatched out last Saturday and hopefully mated this week.  Hive Two: contains Pete’s old Queen but on my last inspection, due to aggressive behaviour (by the bees) and a beekeeping suit that I have discovered allows bee stings through (!!! do they all do this??) I don’t have any further update.

Below is a photo of the two Queen bee larvae I culled from Hive One.  I left two emergency Queen cells.

Queen Bee Larvae
Queen Bee Larvae

Rather than blogging the details of my inspections, I have started publishing the hive records under My Apiary.

So yes, crikey, someone liked my ramblings enough to put them in print.

Now, I have spent a lot of time researching and writing about my thoughts on bees and perhaps the odd thought about people liking my thoughts and somehow getting a paragraph published in a beekeeping magazine one day.  But despite all the effort, the phone is not abuzz from bee publishers.  Ironically it seems the one post I devoted to updating you guys on becoming a father (a process that involves no research whatsoever) is the one that grabbed the attention.

My wife Heidi was completing a National Childbirth Trust (NCT) feedback form where they asked if anyone wanted to write about their experiences as a new Mum or Dad.  She sent them a link to my post On Being A Dad and they liked it enough to include it in the Spring issue of their magazine.

Now it might not be the acclaim for all the hard work and devotion I have paid to this beekeeping pursuit that I was hoping for, but I reckon it still counts for me claiming to be a published author!

I can but dream of the phone call from the BBKA or Bee Craft asking, “hey, we love your stuff, please, please, please can we publish some of your articles?”

“Oh, go on then.”

Author: Roger

regaining my sanity through beekeeping

12 thoughts on “Talking With Bees Gets Published”

  1. Great to meet you and the family in Wales last week. Good luck with the bees and we’ll buy some of your honey when you have enough!

    Dave, Jo and Ed.

  2. Great idea to publish your hive records – I think we should do the same next year. Or I’d love an app to do the hive records on my iPhone at the apiary that publishes them online… your next project Roger?

    1. There are a few iPhone apps for beekeeping. I have them all and am testing them. Beetight, BeesMe, BeeKeeperLite, Honeybee Mapper, and BeeSmart Pollinator Gardener. I will give you a brief description of each.

      Beetight- this app allows you to track 1-1000 hives for $14.99 USD. (Hivetracks does the same for free. Beetight is located in England and Hivetracks is American.)

      BeesMe- I use this for the chat group. This app keeps you updated on what pests or diseases are threats to your hive. (latest article shows the Croatian Bomb sniffing Honeybees and how they were trained. They trained the honey bees to find land mines from the Balkan wars during the 1990’s. Very Amazing Bees!)

      BeeKeeper Lite- store data about your hive or hives. You get a checklist for each visit. It will show you locations of hives on google map. You can take a picture of your hive and store it with the files ( this is good if you want to compare with the next visit.)

      Honeybee Mapper- Awesome app! I recommend it for all beekeepers. SaveTheHives is the developer of this app. It is to raise awareness to the location of hives around the world. You can literally post locations of hives you know. They have very incredible podcasts, you can upload pics of your hive to be put on for everyone to enjoy. “News Items” gives you the latest on honeybees in world news. Too many tabs and file selections to go over here. GET THIS APP!

      BeeSmart Pollinator Gardener- wonderful app! Gave me all the right answers as to which flowers to plant to help my bees. We used it to attract humming birds also. Great app. You are not just doing it for your hive you are doing it for many hives that travel from all around. Great tool.

      I hope this helps. I sincerely Believe in the Bee Cause! Roger, I too took on beekeeping to bring peace in my life. What I have learned in a very short time has been incredible.
      Bee your best,
      Don Tucker

      1. Thanks for this excellent feedback Don. These apps sound really interesting. Two thoughts:

        1. If you wanted to write a guest post on these apps, then please be my guest. I could create a section on Apps and then do a page for each one. If you wrote the text, I could find the website and upload any images. How does that sound.

        2. Also, I’d love to hear about beekeeping has brought peace to your life. What stage of life are you at? What have you learnt? This could be another guest post, if you wanted?

        Yours – very interested.

        Roger

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