About

A beekeeper in East Durham

I'm James, I keep bees across East Durham, and I collect swarms for anyone in Durham or Tyne and Wear who finds one has landed somewhere inconvenient.

This stretch of coast has an odd history for bees. Much of it sat under collieries for the best part of two centuries — the ground was pit yards, spoil heaps and railway sidings, not meadow. Since the pits closed, the coalfield has been steadily reclaiming itself: gorse, bramble, clover and wildflower on land nobody expected to be good for much. It turns out to be excellent bee country, and it's part of why I keep hives here rather than somewhere more conventionally rural.

Swarm collection grew out of that the way it usually does for beekeepers — a neighbour calls, then a neighbour of a neighbour, and eventually it's just part of what you do. A swarm that's collected gets a home in a hive rather than dying out over winter in a chimney or wall cavity, which is a better outcome for the bees and for whoever's garden they landed in.

If you'd rather read updates than get in touch directly, that's what the blog is for — notes from the hives through the season, and what's been called in.