Backyard Bees Cornwall

16/10/2026

🐝⚰️ MEET THE UNDERTAKER BEES!

Did you know that honeybees have their very own undertakers?

It's true! And these hardworking ladies have one of the less glamorous, but incredibly important, jobs in the colony!

🐝 Only around 1–2% of worker bees specialise in undertaking duties. They're responsible for removing dead bees from the hive.
🐝 They can detect chemical changes associated with death. It's not simply a case of spotting a bee that's stopped moving!
🐝 They carry their dead sisters away from the hive, often flying some distance before dropping them.
🐝 It's all about hygiene! Removing dead bees helps keep the colony clean and reduces the risk of disease spreading.

The scientific name for this fascinating behaviour is necrophoresis.

Who knew that honeybees had their very own funeral directors? ⚰️🐝

Just another fascinating glimpse into the extraordinary world of honeybees! 💛

14/10/2026

🐝💛 When You Ask a Beekeeper to Talk About Bees… 😂🐝

Yesterday afternoon, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the lovely ladies of Newquay Women's Institute to share my passion for honeybees.

When Anita first invited me, she asked whether I'd be able to talk about bees for 30–40 minutes.
I did have a little chuckle to myself. The real challenge wasn't finding enough to say… it was knowing when to stop!

And I think I may have gone a little over my allotted time! 🤭

I brought along a beehive (minus the 50,000 residents!), some beekeeping equipment and plenty of stories about the extraordinary lives of honeybees.

We explored the fascinating world inside a colony, how thousands of individual bees work together as one incredible community, and just how important these little insects are to our world.

The ladies were such a wonderful audience, full of curiosity, questions and enthusiasm.

Anita very kindly told me afterwards that the ladies had been "spellbound", which absolutely made my day! ❤️ There's nothing more rewarding than seeing others become just as fascinated by honeybees as I am.

And according to their lovely Facebook write-up, they could have listened for hours… I could have happily obliged! 😂🐝

A huge thank you to Anita and everyone at Newquay WI for such a warm welcome, the lovely feedback and, of course, the tea and cake!

There's nothing I love more than sharing my passion for bees and hopefully inspiring others to appreciate these remarkable little creatures. 💛

🐝 Backyard Bees Cornwall
Helping honeybees and pollinators to thrive.

11/10/2026

🐝 ST AUSTELL, ARE YOU AWARE?

The decisions made about glyphosate at the upcoming council meeting could have lasting consequences for our local wildlife.

Some St Austell councillors appear unconvinced about stopping the use of glyphosate. After all, it's often considered the cheaper and easier option.

Thankfully, other Cornish town councils, including Wadebridge Town Council Penzance Council Bude-Stratton Town Council and Penryn Town Council , have adopted alternatives to glyphosate and stopped using it in areas they manage.

They've demonstrated that there are other ways to manage weeds while keeping their towns looking attractive and considering the needs of local wildlife.

So why shouldn't St Austell consider doing the same?

If residents aren't making their concerns known, what incentive is there to consider alternatives?

🌼 ST AUSTELL TOWN COUNCIL — GLYPHOSATE MEETING
📅 Monday 19 October 2026
🕕 6pm
📍 Chi Austel, St Austell

If you're concerned about the impact of glyphosate on our pollinators, wildlife and environment, now is the time to make your voice heard.
It won't cost you a penny, but doing nothing could cost our pollinators everything.

📞 Call: 01726 829859
📧 Email: [email protected]
✍️ Sign the petition — link below

Please share this post to help spread the word. The more people who know about this meeting, the more opportunity residents have to make their views known.

Our bees, butterflies and birds cannot speak at council meetings.
YOU CAN BE THEIR VOICE. 🐝🌼

06/10/2026

Me: “I’ve got so much to do today.”
Also me: opens a beehive 😂🐝

And suddenly the missed calls, unread messages, emails and enormous to-do list don’t seem quite so urgent…

Priorities. 🤣🙈🐝💕

29/09/2026

A big thank you from me and the pollinators! 🐝🌼💛

Back in the spring, I launched a little campaign encouraging people to leave a patch of their garden to grow wild for our pollinators, with 20 jars of my honey up for grabs for those who took part and sent me their photos and videos.

I've absolutely loved seeing what you grew! Here are just a few of the wonderful wildflower patches you created. 🌸🌿

A huge thank you to everyone who took part and gave a little bit of their garden back to nature.

And if this has inspired you, September and October are a great time to sow many native British wildflower seeds ready for next year. 🌱🌼

From me, the bees, butterflies and all our other pollinators — thank you! 🐝🦋💛

26/09/2026

A sticky disaster… watch what her sisters do!! 🤯

While feeding some surplus honey back to my bees, one little worker found herself in a rather sticky situation!

After scooping her out and placing her back on the landing board, it wasn't long before her sisters gathered around and started cleaning her up — even getting underneath her wings.

Honeybees don't just groom themselves; they also groom one another, a behaviour known as allogrooming. And, of course, they're not going to let perfectly good honey go to waste! 🐝🍯

A lovely little glimpse into the fascinating social world of a honeybee colony. 💚

If you enjoy seeing what goes on in the wonderful world of honeybees, please like, follow and share Backyard Bees Cornwall so I can keep creating more educational bee content.

24/09/2026

24/09/2026

A very proud beekeeper today! 🐝🍯 Three first places at last night’s Honey Show! 🥇🥇🥇

Last night was our annual Honey Show at Wadebridge Beekeepers Association, and I was absolutely delighted to take first place in all three of the classes I entered:

🥇 Medium Honey
🥇 Naturally Granulated Honey
🥇 Dark Honey

Our honey was judged by David Harris, who has an incredible 70 years of beekeeping experience and is himself a highly successful honey-show exhibitor and experienced judge — so receiving such lovely feedback about my honey from him made the evening even more special.

Of course, the bees did all the really clever work — I just had to get their honey into the jars! Although, as I discovered last night, even that is something of an art form. 😂

Before a judge even gets around to tasting the honey, there are so many little details that matter: perfectly clean jars, no fingerprints, no honey underneath the lids, as few air bubbles as possible, and even filling every jar to exactly the right level. And that last one caught me out! 🤦‍♀️

I learnt that my honey could have taken Best in Show, but I’d filled my jars to the wrong level for judging. So close — and a lesson I definitely won’t forget next time!

That’s one of the things I love about beekeeping — however much you learn, there is always something else to discover.

So today I went back to the apiary to thank the thousands of little workers who actually made it. 🐝💛🍯

20/09/2026

⚠️ WARNING: Some of this footage is quite gruesome… but absolutely fascinating.

I wasn’t expecting to capture THIS at my apiary.

I spotted a European hornet hawking outside one of my honeybee colonies — and decided to keep the camera rolling.

What happened next was brutal, fascinating and an incredible glimpse into the life of one of Britain’s most impressive native predators.

She caught one of my honeybees in flight, carried her to a nearby branch and began processing her prey — even hanging upside down by a single leg while she worked.

As a beekeeper, this wasn't easy to watch. My instinct is always to protect my bees. But the European hornet is native to Britain too, and she was simply doing what she has evolved to do.

There’s no villain here. Just predator and prey — and an extraordinary glimpse of nature happening right in front of me.

Nature isn't always pretty… but it is fascinating. 🐝

🎥 Filmed at one of my Cornish apiaries
Backyard Bees Cornwall.

08/09/2026

October is approaching—and with it, St Austell Town Council’s promised report on glyphosate.

In July, the Town Council agreed to continue its existing weed-control measures, including the targeted use of glyphosate. It also agreed to trial a 1.25% glyphosate mixture, investigate the weed-control methods being used by other councils and report its findings within three months.

That takes us to October.

I hope the council will publish the trial results, explain which safer alternatives it has investigated and give local residents a meaningful opportunity to have their say before any further decisions are made.

A special public meeting was also discussed in July, although it was not included in the final resolution. Will residents now be given that opportunity?

St Austell Town Council, Councillor Jeremy Preece and —will the trial results and promised report be made public in October, and will residents be given an opportunity to take part?

This isn’t about allowing our streets and pavements to become unsafe or neglected. It is about asking whether safer, more sustainable alternatives have been properly explored.

Councils and communities in places including Newquay, Bude-Stratton, Penryn and Redruth, to name but a few, have already moved away from routine glyphosate use and are pursuing non-chemical alternatives.

Our pollinators cannot speak for themselves—but we can.