Setting Up

This blog is going to show what is happening in the apiary at the Wood Green Animal Shelter in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire. As the apiary was set up earlier in the year, the first few posts will be a catch up to show how the apiary was constructed and the bees arriving on site. Once that has been done, I aim to post hive notes so that you can look to see what is happening to the bees.

The apiary was first proposed after a meeting at the end of 2009. Wood Green Animal Shelters (WGAS) had asked my wife Judith about putting bee hives beside a nature trail that was being proposed. Judith is the secretary of the Cambridgeshire Bee Keepers Association. Rather than put hives around the trail, we agreed to set up an apiary. We gave WGAS the contact details of a couple of other public apiaries so they could see what was proposed and to show that these apiaries could be run safely for the public.

I keep bees along the A14 corridor in the Huntingdon to St Ives area. I also import Apimaye bee hives from Turkey. I had been running field trials using these Apimaye hives and the apiary seemed like an ideal place to continue with these trials. It would also be ideal to show other bee keepers these new hives. I also teach bee keeping and the apiary is being developed with teaching and breeding in mind.