Tag: isle of lewis
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It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over Whilst the beekeeping season is over for most of the UK, Scotland and the Isle of Lewis have a later start and so a later finish, extended further by the late blooms of heather. The droughts and heatwaves that are making the headlines in England and Wales haven’t affected…
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It’s Showtime! It has been a sociable few weeks with the Carloway and Lochs Agricultural Shows, campsite guests, a village get together, a bridge opening, another SAF course, a music festival and a University visit to the apiary here at Croft 5. Camp 5 The croft welcomed its first campsite guests. For both couples the…
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Bees in Transit If you read the previous beekeeping blog you’ll know that June was especially difficult, and despite the welcomed warmer and drier weather, July had an equally deadly sting in its’ tail. I had ordered a nuc last year, for this season, and so booked a ferry for a day trip off-island to…
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Fencing. June started with a power cut (affecting most of the Western Isles this time) and so I thought it would be a useful time to sit down with a wee dram, put on some Fleetwood Mac, and write this months croft update. That was a month ago. And I’m not quite sure where June…
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Robbing B’ees It has been a difficult time for the bees and the beekeeper here on the Isle of Lewis. The average temperature for the last 30 days has been around 11-12°C and it has felt generally cool. It’s hard to think that tomorrow is the longest day and only this week I had the…
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Building Bridges With little activity on the croft this month I had to take a look back at the last blog post to remind myself just how much has actually happened so far 2026! May has been decidedly cool and somewhat grey. A month of nothingness really, in terms of both the weather and progress…
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A Hive of Activity In my 2026 diary April 19th marks the first day of spring with blue skies, little wind and double digits showing on the thermometer. The bees agreed and so it began – the first inspection of the season. Just a brief look at the colonies to check that there were no…
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Nobody’s Fool With April showers appearing through March, and a return to frosty and colder temperatures marking the start of April, the seasons have certainly tricked us and the bees here at the croft. Thankfully a warmer dry spell soon followed and April 19th has been marked by me and the bees as the official…
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Spring hasn’t Sprung In many parts of the UK the bees are already fetching in the nectar from oil seed rape and dandelion; beekeepers are splitting colonies, adding supers, seeing honey, and having concerns about swarming. But here in the Outer Hebrides the seasons lag and it is a nervous time to be a beekeeper.…
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Spring Forward As the clocks moved forwards an hour for whatever made-up reason, and the days begin to become longer than the nights, March seems to have taken a step backwards. March was the opposite of February as the island was hit by a string of windy and wet weather fronts. Warmer than the mainland,…