Free From A to Bee by James Dearsley Page B

understanding about how it all comes together! I look forward to the day that I can speak with Adam's authority.
    Â Â I am continually getting asked the question about what bees I am going to get. I really must look into this as I am still only really aware that they are yellow and black. I am vaguely aware that some are from Africa and some are from Europe but I have no idea which bees are local to me around here; it doesn't help that I have not heard anything from the beekeeper in the village that I am sure could answer most of my questions. Is there an English bee or even better, a Surrey bee? I am quite looking forward to finding that out. I am also learning a lot about solitary bees at the moment, and the importance they also have on pollination, which has been interesting. Apparently they are a hundred times more prolific at pollinating than honeybees but, as their name suggests, they work on their own.
    Â Â I must go to bed… These thoughts are not really making too much sense and another long day awaits me tomorrow.

    FEBRUARY 27

    It has been an interesting couple of days. First, there was the compelling event of our lovely neighbours moving out, who hadn't started packing until the day before. Imagine trying to empty a four bedroom house, with no professional help, while trying to look after two kids aged ten and three, two dogs, three cats, three chickens and two gerbils. It was never going to be a relaxing twenty-four hours for them and it certainly didn't look like a relaxing final hour either. As the removals company for our new neighbours, Nicky and Jo, arrived and just parked patiently outside, poor Duncan and Jane were literally throwing their lifelong belongings into the back of a small horsebox – yes, a small horsebox. Heaven knows why they left it so late but I should imagine their respective blood pressures have hit new highs.
    Â Â We went to see them this morning in their caravan, which is only just big enough for them, let alone their menagerie. I also got to see the task ahead of them – building a four bedroom house from scratch. Their predicament looks pretty bleak, and when you consider that they couldn't fit much of their belongings inside the caravan it looks even worse. Last night they left it all outside under a loosely fitted tarpaulin, just in time for a pretty terrible rainstorm. Off flew the tarpaulin and needless to say most of their things are now sodden and unusable. It is not often I feel sorry for people, but I have to say this morning was one of those occasions as I stood in the abyss of a huge hole ready for foundations, which resembled a swimming pool after last night's downpour. I walked away pretty pleased with my own domestic arrangements but wishing them all the luck in the world.
    Â Â Quite aside from all of that it was quite an exciting day for me as I saw an advert in the back of Beecraft , the beekeeping magazine, for a nucleus of bees for sale. After closer investigation I realised it was for five frames of bees (about 5,000 apparently) complete with a 'laying queen'. The price of £150 is quite high really if you consider what you are getting for that money. But then as beekeeping seems to have become the 'in thing', I suppose they can charge that sort of money.
    Â Â I was having some discussions with a blogging friend of mine about this sum of money and basically the crux is whether I definitely want to start beekeeping this year. The cheapest way to get bees is to hand your hive (or parts of it anyway) to your local association and then wait. You hope that as swarms of bees are recovered from around the local area, your hive is the one that is picked. I wonder if it is like those games you play on Brighton Pier which are a complete rip-off – you know, the ones with the mechanical arm that looks like it will pick up the fluffy bunny, nips its ear, starts to pull the bunny up and then, just as the pincers close, the ear miraculously