The Kingdom of Fife, honey from the hive

13/06/2026

We 'Tell The Bees" about events that we think they should know.

We explained to them that, after 28 long years, Scotland returns to the world’s biggest stage to face Haiti under the lights of Gillette Stadium 🇺🇸

❤️ The local kick-off in Boston means a 2:00 AM late-nighter for us. We are staying up. Sleep can wait—history cannot! 🌍

❤️ NO SCOTLAND NO PARTY🏆

*Show us your flags. Here are some we have spotted while out and about.

12/06/2026

When we were contacted by St Leonards Primary School and Nursery Dunfermline, staff reported seeing bees. Staff supplied a very helpful photo of one of the dead bees and we identified them immediately as Tree bees (Bombus Hypnorum). We offered as much information as possible and then we waited a day or two, with hope in our hearts...the wait was worth it because the response was the absolute best.

Staff said that they were so pleased to have the bees they actually announced their arrival to the children during a morning assembly. Staff supplied information we provided about the bees to the children, who were all excited to hear the bees had chosen their school.

*What a brilliant attitude, it made our day. So far, this year, other schools/nurseries have refused to allow a small handful of bumblebees remain on school property and called Pest Control. Staff have claimed they have to do it "to protect children". Are children that fragile? We believe every single school should employ a teacher with a knowledge of nature, one who knows the basics and can encourage planting for pollinators and instill a positive mindset for children, the adults of the future. Thankfully we have schools like St Leondards leading the way. (If your child attends St Leonards, please give staff a huge part on the back, they deserve it).

*We referred Highlander Pest Management who saved a colony in a removable bird box at a nursery in Leven. He attended late evening and removed the bird box, complete with bees. He took the bees to a new home, near Leslie, to continue their short lives.

10/06/2026

Queen spotting for beginners anyone?👀🐝👀

Please, when you see her, say "yes" or add a bee emoji or two, but don't reveal her location, let everyone have a chance to find her themselves.

To quickly tell a queen bee apart from a worker bee, look for a significantly longer, tapered abdomen, shorter wings, and legs that splay outwards.

*This is queen Kitty of Kingskettle, from a recent swarm, what a real beauty, she is. We fell in love with her immediately (as we do with them all) 🙂

10/06/2026

Over the past few days loads of bumblebees have suddenly been appearing in our garden. They are not just passing through, they are frantic, going up and down, checking out our spare hives and hive parts, requiring maintenance. The familiar bee smell has tricked them into thinking there are bees present. If there are lots of bees there must be lots of food, they reckon. We are seeing bees fighting, they shove, butt, or chase each other off a bloom. Also, while inspecting hives yesterday, in another area in Fife, bumblebees were dive-bombing into them. We were desperately trying to retrieve them because there is little chance they would make it out once the roof is replaced with them inside. Why the change in behaviour, this week?

The "June Gap' occurs because spring-blooming plants and tree blossoms have all faded, while summer-flowering plants are not producing many flowers yet.

Did you know that experts state that foraging bumble bees are practically always on the brink of starvation. Because they require massive amounts of energy to fly, regulate their body temperature and forage, a bumblebee with a full stomach can deplete its energy reserves and be as little as 40 minutes away from starvation?

Solitary bees, too, do not store honey to fall back on like honey bees. They rely entirely on finding fresh pollen and nectar on a daily basis to provision individual brood cells. If a mother cannot find enough flowers, she cannot feed her developing larvae. Called 'failed nesting' the bees die.

What can we do to help? That's very easy. We can "plug the gap" by planting flora that blooms throughout this transitional dearth window. Most plant retailers have now added an 'RHS Approved for pollinators' logo, so even if you have no knowledge about flowers, the logo will help you decide. The size will let you know if it can be planted on a verandah, by the front or back door, or if it needs more space to grow. The label will also advise when it will flower. A small independent nursery/garden centre will always have knowledgeable staff on hand, too, to offer great planting advice.

Despite being extremely busy yesterday, we passed by a plant retailer and picked up six perennials with the logo on the way home, costing just £12. Smashing! Perennials are great, they disappear and return bigger and better each year. (The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.)

*We chose ones with a few flowers just opening. The delighted bees in our garden have found them already and we haven't even planted them up, yet. Imagine if we all plant a little and create a pollinator corridor? If everyone does a little we can achieve a lot.

08/06/2026

When Martha and Rory Bryce, from Auchtermuchty, contacted us about honey bees that had swarmed under the eaves of their property there was nothing we could do. No beekeeper is going to clamber up a wall, get onto a 20 foot high roof and do what? Nothing will get the colony to come out unless they want to. Structural removal, or 'cut-outs' can be arranged with 'specialists', often requiring scaffolding to be in place, a builder or roofer on hand to offer access by removal of roof tiles, soffits, plasterboard etc. This costs ££££££s and doesn't seem to have a very high rate of success. Beekeepers are insured, through their Beekeepers Association, to collect exposed swarms, hanging in a cluster, but that's all. We don't remove bumblebees, either, following expert advice from The Bumblebee Conservation Trust not to disturb them.

Despite not being able to remove the bees, we attended the address to offer advice not to block the entry point and mostly to plead with them not to call Pest Control. We explained that the bees may swarm out of their own accord, they may find it too warm, or even just be sheltering overnight and may just leave. "If they decided to stay they wouldn't cause any structural damage", we told them.

After we had finished giving general advice Martha said "You know the bedroom closest to where the bees are entering, it belongs to our daughter," before continuing "last week, she finished her studies, so, you know what, I'm more than happy for the bees to stay". Husband Rory chipped in, "Oh yes, it's fascinating to watch them, quite exciting, really and I'm happy for them to be here, too. We were then offered coffee which we declined but, despite being volunteers, we couldn't turn down the offer of two boxes of free range eggs from the chickens that were wandering around in the garden. We went down the road happy, clutching a dozen eggs. What a lovely couple, Martha and Rory. Good people.

07/06/2026

Watch as the bees realise their queen is inside and begin to follow each other in. No matter how many times we see it, it's always fascinating to watch.

07/06/2026

Nicole, from Rosyth, had been very busy in the garden with plans to cut the grass, the edges and get on with a few more garden jobs. Cracking on, with her two 'assistants' Honey and Bonnie, in tow, by late afternoon Nicole was half finished when she came face to face with a swarm of honeybees, hanging out on her tree. Up until that point, Nicole had absolutely no idea she had been sharing her garden with anyone other than the dogs. After getting in touch with us, unphased Nicole carried on with garden jobs, but gave the bees space.

We arrived and were greeted by the 'welcome committee' mother and daughter, Honey and Bonnie. Most dogs dont like 'hoodies' so after greeting the dogs and having some cuddles, Nicole took the dogs inside to watch events from the window.

Cuddles resumed once again, before we left, with the lovely dogs.

*Please never ignore a swarm of honeybees. Homeless, these bees will usually make their way under the eaves of a property and we cant remove them once they go inside. ONLY honey bees swarm and cluster round their queen, as shown in the photo. If you see a large cluster it's not wasps, flying ants, beetles or massive midgies, it's honey bees.

05/06/2026

Please come along to the West Fife Show and try some real life queen spotting. We will be there with one of our colonies. The west Fife Show is always a good day out, so please, come along. 🐝🙂

West Fife Show 2026 – Easter Bucklyvie Farm, Crossgates, Sat 6 Jun 2026 - A fun-filled, action packed day out for ALL the family come rain or shine!!

04/06/2026

🎶🎵"There's a worm (swarm) at the bottom of your garden (and his name is Wiggly-Woo)". (Please note the musical theme)🎵🎶

Tamra Harrison, from Kingskettle, was at work when she received a call from her neighbour across the street, Lynn. "You know the swarm of honeybees that appeared in the village a few days ago and went into the home of Annie and Sanj, the lovely neighbours, down the street?" asked Lynn, before continuing, excitedly, "Well, they have only went and swarmed out again this afternoon and now theres a swarm at the bottom of your garden". "Are you kidding me, was the reply, as Tamra suddenly continued, "WAIT, the village defribblator box is at the bottom of my garden, if someone needs to access it they may get a bigger shock than they bargained for".

Being a Doctor, previously, Tamra is a lady who doesn't get ruffled. She is kind, calm and caring. She is also a lady who absolutely loves bees and all of nature. Tamra had begun reading our posts a year or two ago and thoroughly enjoyed when it came to swarm season. She loved hearing of the swarms, where they were discovered, where they ended up and she, herself, wished she could be involved with discovering a swarm, or seeing one close up. As a realist, Tamra never imagined it would happen, especially not now, with her house recently sold, a million things to do and the new owner moving in, a few days later.

Tamra went straight onto her local community group and advised the villagers to be aware the swarm had arrived, was safe with her, to just give the swarm space if anyone needed to access the defribblator box. She gave reassurance that everything was in hand, she knew who to contact. Next, she contacted us and we were there, within the hour.

Usually, we will get the bees into a small nucleus box, leave it in place and return late evening to collect the bees, when they are all in their beds. We never like to leave even one bee, behind. In this case, we made the decision to remain, with the bees. The box could have perched on the wall, or even squeezed just behind it, but it would have still been visible to anyone passing by. When a swarm is in an area with public traffic, we don't leave it unattended. Is a sign enough warning people a visible box contains bees? Its possibly more like a 'Wet Paint' sign, everyone wants to check if it's dry yet.

As we remained on site we chatted to lots of villagers, who were all very interested in why bees swarm. Someone suggested the bees had came from near Kettle Produce, another said someone keeps bees around half a mile away. A fellow beekeeper who read the post in the community group also appeared not long after we had arrived. He had a completely different theory as to where the bees had come from, originally and admitted he was a bit miffed he hadn't managed to lay claim on them. He was very, very nice, however and we all chatted bees, some more.

With passers by gone, over an hour or two, Tamra told us her life had completely changed direction. Tamra had been treated for breast cancer around 14 years ago and she tries to enjoy and embrace every new day by seeing the positives, ignoring the negatives and generally living her best life. We were astonished but really happy when she revealed that her career change meant that Tamra has now went on to become a jazz singer and is lead vocalist with 'Method In Our Jazzness'. They will be supporting the upcombing Grace Black 20 Year Anniversary Concert to celebrate and raise money for cancer Research at one of our favourite venues Leslie Town Hall (please consider buying tickets for this event).

A week after picking up the swarm, we are still in touch with Tamra, chatting on the phone. What a lovely woman. When she gets settled, we plan to visit her, at her new home in Glenrothes. But who is the hero of the story and up until now haven't had much of a mention? Annie and husband Sang, that's who. When the swarm entered their property, they made the decision to co-exist with the bees. Calling pest control was the last thing they were ever going to do. Sanj returned home as we were picking up the bees, he came along to chat and see them off. He said it's not every day you come home to find thousands of squatters have moved into your property, but he was happy that they had chosen his house. A little bit sad to see them go, Sanj took pleasure knowing that the bees would have their own home, in the countryside, near kirkcaldy, at a quarantine apiary with an abundance of forage surrounding them.
We drove off waving and sung a jazz jazz song all the way home.....

ALL THAT JAZZ

"Come on babe why don't we paint the town? (Hip wiggle and throws out arms)
And all that jazz"
I'm gonna rogue my knees
And roll my stockings down
And all that jazz"

Sounds great but no thanks, don't try to distract us with nonsense, it's swarm season and we're not rolling our stockings down anywhere, or rouging our knees for that matter (whatever that is). We're getting into our bee suits, awaiting our next swarm call. Can we postpone painting the town until September? 🪊 🎵🎶✨🤣

*If you are the man who has just moved into your new bungalow, in Kingskettle and are curious as to why you have a large circular bald patch in one of your bushes, now you know!

Many thanks to Sanj, wife Annie, observant neighbour Lynn, who allowed us to borrow her garden tools to chop away at the holly bush and of course, to the star of the show, the lovelyTamra Harrison.

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