Buzz About

Creating a buzz about things we love, from bees to afternoon tea and anything in-between.

30/05/2026

I'm on the ball with Saturday Caturday this week. And we Banshee living life on the edge, yep hanging out on a beehive!

Have a great weekend everyone.

28/05/2026

Hello Folks, I hope you are all managing to keep cool in this hot weather. Just like us the bees are drinking more than normal and I couldn't resist spending a bit of time watching my girls sipping from our pond.

While I was there I had a frog splash in beside me and noticed some small aquatic beetles! This naturally needed a bit more investigation.

I can now tell you they are predaceous diving beetles with the Latin family name dytiscidae. There are over 4000 species of these little critters, I honestly can’t tell you which one I have. They are around 1cm long, but some species can reach 2.5cms.

As the name suggests they are excellent divers and swimmers that live mainly in the water, but when its time to move to a new home they do fly.

They are remarkably diverse and can be found in most types of freshwater habitat, our pond in green and murky most the time, with fresh water arriving from our gutters when it rains.

They are carnivores, feeding on both living and dead animals, taking on fish and tadpoles larger than themselves. While eating tadpoles doesn’t sound great, they also eat mosquito larvae which has I more positive feel. And if we go full circle on the food chain frogs will feed on the beetles along with fish and water spiders.

Some other fun facts about the diving beetle, they have two methods of getting oxygen while underwater. First is by storing air between their abdomen and elytra and secondly by diffusing dissolved oxygen in the water. This means they can stay underwater for an impressive 24 hours or more.

One of their forms of defence is a chemical secretion that contains a steroid not found in any other animal.

Adult dytiscidae are apparently edible, especially the genus cybister. I don’t think I’ll be fishing them out my pond anytime soon though!

27/05/2026

Despite the heat we squeezed in one more longish walk yesterday evening before we head to Holland on Friday to walk around the island of Texel.

25/05/2026

My large bramble patch has burst into flower today, so I get to watch my bees working. Happy days 🐝💙

24/05/2026

Managed a 16km this morning in the heat 🥵

Hopefully it will be cooler next weekend when we take on a two day 60km walk in Holland.

23/05/2026

Can you believe I nearly forgot Saturday Caturday!

Don't panic, I quick scroll and I found this one of Kitty hiding behind the fire. Why did I hear you ask? Because I put drops in her ears. 😹

23/05/2026

10 things to consider before getting bees

I compiled this list for my World bee day event, and thought it might be useful here too.

Also a little video of a lively hive inspection. If you have any questions, fire away. 🐝🤗

1 Why

Why do you want bees? If your answer is ‘because I love them’ you’ll probably be ok. If it is for the honey, you might want to reconsider. It is not actually that easy.

2 Training

You will need to get some kind of training before you get your first hive. This doesn’t have to be a full-on accredited course, it could be your own online research, reading textbooks or asking other beekeepers for advice. And I would strongly recommend having someone to turn to with questions when things go off plan, and they will.

3 Cost

The cost to set up with one hive and minimum equipment is around 500 euros, but things can soon snowball from here. As you need another hive to do a split, more supers, a honey spinner, candy for the winter, feeder boards, escape boards, hornet muzzles, jars, labels ……… you get the idea.

4 Storage

Having just touched on equipment this is the next obvious point, we don’t use a lot of the equipment all year so you will need somewhere to store it.

5 Time

During the season, which is usually spring and summer, you should do weekly hive inspections. They don’t take that long per hive, but they do have to fit in with the weather. This can be tricky in Normandy. Just to clarify on this point, it can affect holiday plans.

6 Allergies

Are you allergic to bee stings? Because you will get stung. It doesn’t mean you can’t keep bees, just a bit more planning is advisable. Double layered suits, epi pen etc.

7 Weight

A full hive weighs a lot, as do the supers full of honey. To do regular inspections you’ll need to lift the supers which could be around 20 kilos. There may also be the need to move the hive which could be 45 kilos. If you are unable to do this, you will either need help or buy yet more equipment to help.

8 Placement

Where are you going to put your hives? There are a number of rules that governs hive placement, mainly about the distance of hives from neighbours, roads, paths etc. These vary slightly from department to department. However, most rules can be circumnavigated by placing a 2 metres high fence between your bees and the problem.

9 Equipment Management

Even for a few hives you will need to spend a fair bit of time maintaining equipment. Cleaning off excess wax, sterilising frames and boxes before reusing. Cleaning the honey spinner and all its paraphernalia.

10 Wax

The process of harvesting honey produces wax, processing wax is a messy business. You can of course buy yet more equipment to do this more efficiently but there will still be mess.

It can be done with a few metal bowls and saucepans, but once you have used them for wax that is their job for life.

22/05/2026

I have just done a couple of hive inspection and couldn't resist a photo of this frame of stored pollen.

Look at all those shades, smells fantastic too.

21/05/2026

Good morning folks, I spent last weekend away at a campsite in Saint Martin de Brehal that leads right onto the beach. Naturally a few evening strolls were necessary, and as usually little bugs kept jumping on my feet. I managed to get a photo of one and have done a little bit of research on them.

They are called Sand hoppers or Talitrus saltator and are actually tiny crustacean rather than insects, at 8.2 to 16.5mm long. This is evident in the photo as they have eight legs and an exoskeleton.

They can also be referred to as sand fleas due to their ability to jump, they do this by tucking their tail under and then extending their abdomen forcing them up. However, they pose no threat to humans as they do not bite, just tickle a bit when they land on your foot.

They feed on decaying seaweed and other rotting beach fodder, so great for keeping the beaches healthy. They are also an important food source for many shoreline birds creating the perfect natural balance.

During they day they bury themselves 10 to 30 centimetres in the sand, coming out early evening to feed. This explains why I only notice them on evening walks.

18/05/2026

It's not pretty, but I have managed to get my edges strimmed before World bee day .

Next job clean house and make cakes ( then clean kitchen again)

Looking forward to seeing people on Wednesday, they'll be honey tasting, equipment and an empty hive on display.

The weather looks good so there should be plenty of active bees outside the hives and, of course, I'll be happy to talk about bees.

Adresse

Avranches

Téléphone

+33627565531

Site Web

http://buzzabout.weebly.com/

Notifications

Soyez le premier à savoir et laissez-nous vous envoyer un courriel lorsque Buzz About publie des nouvelles et des promotions. Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas utilisée à d'autres fins, et vous pouvez vous désabonner à tout moment.