Clewer Honey Windlesham

01/05/2026

In my hive today, a bee was covered in honey. Her sisters came to the rescue and cleaned her up. Bees are highly social and connected creatures, in tune with each other and the collective community

06/03/2026

Spring is on its way, please be careful with what you add to your lawn to encourage growth.

The robin hopping across your lawn right now isn't looking at the ground.

It's listening to it.

That head tilt isn't a bird looking for worms. It's an ear aimed at the soil. A robin can hear an earthworm moving underground from several feet away.

And right now, there's a lot to hear.

As soil temperature crosses thirty-six degrees — which happened on your property sometime in the last week or two — earthworms that have been coiled in mucus-lined chambers several feet deep since November start moving upward. Slowly. An inch per day. Following the thaw line toward the surface.

The mole tunnels appearing in your lawn this week aren't random. The moles followed the worms up. Where you see fresh tunnels, that's where worm density is highest underground. The mole is mapping something you can't see.

Every worm that reaches the surface pulls decomposing leaf litter down into its burrow. That cycle is what builds your topsoil. The lawn's fertility for the entire growing season starts with this migration.

🌿 How to keep the system working:

- Hold off on lawn chemicals until late spring — earthworms absorb pesticides and herbicides through their skin, and the robins that eat them absorb the dose again
- Leave thin leaf litter on the lawn through March — it's food supply and insulation for the worms still ascending
- If you see mole tunnels, press the raised turf down with your foot instead of treating — the mole is doing grub control underneath

The robins know spring started. The moles know. Your lawn doesn't look any different yet.

But six inches down, the migration has been underway for days 🌿

05/03/2026

Advice on identifying mining bees and understanding their lifecycle and role in your garden.

04/03/2026

The Two-Part Series, From National Geographic Explorer at Large and Academy Award® Winner James Cameron, Streams on Disney+ April 1 and National Geographic WILD at 7pm

01/01/2026

21/10/2025

Happy National Honey Day!

Bee Smart on National Honey Day

01/10/2025

Time for the girls to relax too

01/10/2025

Wow! What a year it's been this year and all the hard work has paid off.

01/08/2025

A fascinating read!

Researchers in the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry have solved a decades-old archaeological puzzle by re-investigating the molecular composition of an intriguing residue found in bronze jars excavated from a 6th century BCE Greek shrine in Paestum, southern Italy. Published today in...

08/07/2025

Meet 2 new queens for this year. Let me know if you can see them - I have not marked them yet!
The hive makes a new queen when the current queen is getting old or as preparation to swarm if the colony is large.