The dreaded first post!

Okay,
So this is the first post... Best make it poignant.

A couple of years ago I decided to take up bee keeping.  I had just returned from what was my 5th operational tour (2nd of Afghanistan) and I was stuck for something to do whilst on my post operational tour leave.

Coming home is amazing, yet family and friends don't get the opportunity to take as much leave as we do after a tour, so with a mind racing and winding down post tour I felt I needed something to occupy myself.

As a coincidence, my mum runs the Riverside garden centre cafe in Bristol who have a bee hive located within the grounds which I used to go and see as I was wandering around.  At around the same time one of my best friends mum sadly broke her femur and was laid up.  As she was, she had begun to study beekeeping and got 2 national hives for her garden.

Having seen the focus and attention it took to look after bees I figured it would be perfect for me to get involved in.  As such, I decided to take a course in beekeeping, Buy a hive and get involved.

I loved it. I could really switch off, and settle back into the UK way of life, the challenge of keeping bees successfully and maybe persuading them to make enough honey for me to take some gave me a challenge and another direction to take my spare time.

When I first got my hives I was working at RAF Honington, in Suffolk. Here I decided to help others in a way I'd helped myself, by setting up a Station bee keeping club.

Since this, lots has happened.

I have moved (to Henlow), bought a house in Surrey been back to Afghanistan, and bought 4 chickens.

So this blog will be following my musings, successes and failures of my back garden hives, chicken rearing, growing my own and general gardening.  All to which, I would suggest I rank as amateur.

I'll be seeking support and advice as well as helping others through bee keeping and hopefully encouraging people to get of the sofas and into the garden.

big love everyone

Dan

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