“Learn to Think Like A Bee”
Welcome to all of our new Beekeepers
By Fiona Fernie ABA Education Officer
My original beekeeping mentor said to me – “to be a beekeeper you must learn to think like a bee”. He then added to be a good beekeeper you must KEEP learning the think like a bee!”
“Think Like A Bee” (TLAB) will be a regular inclusion in The Amateur Beekeeper, and we hope that you may find it useful. It is a section especially for our members new to the gentle art of beekeeping. Hopefully these articles will inspire some of our longer-term members to keep learning. Look for the Yellow and Black TLAB symbol.
Keeping bees is a joyous activity and learning about bees and their behavior is fun and interesting. You could spend many hours just watching the bees at the entrance to the hive and learning a lot. Use all of your senses when you open a hive; the aroma should be floral, the sound should be a contented hum, your eyes should see a variety of housekeeping and hygiene activities and the bees should be docile and friendly.
New beekeepers are our future, and we would encourage you to enjoy the pages we are providing for you. You may think that Varroa is all we talk about, but we extend an invitation to you to tell us what you want us to provide, in terms of basic guide pages.
I think it is fair to say that while to be a beekeeper you need to think like a bee that learning does not stop after one or two years. Our goal is to help you all to become good beekeepers.