About Bees'n'Beans

Hello and welcome to the Bees’n’Beans website! 

It’s now the autumn of 2011.  We have put all the gardens to bed and are watching the bees gradually form into their winter clusters for the next few months.  How we are going to miss them until spring! 

We had a great year and watched most of our beginning bee-keeping students start their first hives, which was incredibly gratifying.  We participated in Boris Johnson’s baby, Capital Bee, and taught bee-keeping to representatives of area organisations – Capel Manor College, Friends of Streatham Cemetery and The Walpole Estate, Woolwich.  We will continue with them in the spring and help them launch their maiden hives. 

But we must admit, it was a lousy honey year for us.  It seemed that many other bee-keepers experienced this as well, but it made us conclude that next year (after three years of teaching), our main concern is going to be about taking care of our bees.  So we have made the decision that we are not going to teach the beginning bee-keeping class in 2012.   (But there’s good news so keep reading!)

2011 was also good to us in that we helped to form a new bee-keeping club in Croydon: the Country Park Bee Keepers Association.   Andy Williams, a Parks Coordinator for Croydon Council, encouraged us to start keeping bees at the South Norwood Country Park and, together with former students, we found ample enthusiasm and support for the club.  The good folk at the Country Park helped to create an apiary and we currently have two hives.  We hope to become a veritable bee-keeping force in the Croydon/Crystal Palace area – so watch out! 

One of the Association’s goals is to teach beginning bee-keeping so if you would like more information, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

We are also starting a Queen Rearing group and plan to sell good-quality queens for a good price.  Please email the club ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you are in the market for a queen next year and hopefully we can help you out.

Mike and I also may have a few nucleuses and queens for sale so please keep us in mind, as well.  You can contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

We will be hibernating most of the winter but we are hawks when it comes to emails, so feel free to get in touch. 

Here’s to the bees!

Cheers,

Sue’n’Mike