Beekeeping Across Europe

Over the years my passion with bees has led me to travel to other countries in Europe to meet local beekeepers.Since 1994 I have visited beekeepers in the Pyrenees, Dordogne, Var and Provence regions of France,western Poland, the Brandenburg region of Germany and latterly Slovenia in 2008. In 2005 I attended the world beekeeping conference, Apimondia, when it was based in Dublin on its bi-annual journey around the world.In 2009 I am going to Portugal to visit beekeepers and will also be attending the 2009 Apimondia conference in Montpellier.In 2007, in line with the family tradition, my wife Rita visited beekeepers in Iceland.

Use the links on this page to see something of my travels and what I have learned from others who love bees across Europe. I have learned a lot on my travels; I have seen different hives, new ways to get the best out of bees, learned about new bee breeding techniques and seen honey and hive product markets that dwarf those in the UK.

More importantly I have met dozens and dozens of people with whom I have common passion. We all spoke different languages but we communicated through our love of bees.

I think that the photos and stories give a good flavour of beekeeping in other parts of Europe and I hope that you find them interesting. I will be writing up my experiences in 2009 in Portugal and Apimondia later in the year and also hope to produce pages on my earlier trips to France, Germany and Poland later.