My beekeeping started early, at my childhood home in the south side of Edinburgh in the 1970s.

Aged about 12, I would help my father to look after the bees that he kept in his garden and in my grandfather’s garden. To be fair, that mostly involved loading honey frames into the extractor and running it as fast as it would go on a Sunday in late summer – then helping him to filter and jar the amber liquid honey whilst trying to keep the bees out of the old stone scullery where he had his equipment.

My father had helped his father (my grandfather) look after bees in the immediate post war years just after he had left the Navy where he served on the aircraft carrier Illustrious in the Mediterranean. They had about 8 hives spread round their gardens in Edinburgh and they sometimes loaded hives onto an old trailer towed behind the family Wolseley car and took the bees off into the hills and “onto the heather”. I think a local priest was involved somewhere along the way – there seems a strong connection between the church and the hive.

Anyway, time passed and I moved away – first to Glasgow and then to England. But I still relished my father’s honey though the supply dried up as the miles between us increased and effort of looking after the bees took its toll on him. It always had the best taste of any honey ever (in my view). Lots of lime trees in our part of Edinburgh I guess..

And so it seemed natural that I would eventually get my own bees when my children were old enough, and set up a few hives in my garden using equipment rescued from the garage in Edinburgh when Dad wasn’t looking. Fun fact – Scottish beekeepers mostly use “Smith” hives which a slightly different size to the “Nationals” we use in England. I dont suppose the bees mind much.

That started me with two hives and it has now grown to about 10.

My children have moved on. Most of them weren’t that keen on bees – but who knows what their future holds ?