How It Started

“You should keep bees,” my neighbour said, gesturing at the overgrown garden. “Pollinators need help, and you’ve got the space.”

I knew nothing about bees. I’m a computer scientist who spends days thinking about web accessibility and human-computer interaction. I don’t have a background in biology, entomology, or agriculture.

Which made it perfect for a Friday night experiment.

Why Bees?

Several things made beekeeping appealing as a side project:

Tangential to Real Work

Completely different from my research field. No overlap with web technology, accessibility, or HCI. Pure exploration in unfamiliar territory.

Practically Accessible

Unlike many experiments requiring labs or expensive equipment:

• Can keep bees in a residential garden
• Initial setup relatively affordable (few hundred pounds)
• Local beekeeping association offers courses
• Active community for advice and troubleshooting

Intellectually Deep

What seems simple (“keep bees, get honey”) reveals endless complexity:

• Colony social dynamics
• Queen-worker relationships
• Swarming triggers and prevention
• Disease management
• Seasonal cycles
• Foraging patterns

Concretely Useful

While not the primary goal, practical benefits:

• Honey production (if successful)
• Garden pollination
• Environmental contribution
• Connection to natural processes

Getting Started

The Learning Curve

I joined the Manchester and District Beekeeping Association (MDBKA) and took their beginner’s course:

Week 1: “Bees are amazing!”
Week 2: “This is more complex than I thought”
Week 3: “How does anyone keep colonies alive?”
Week 4: “I probably shouldn’t do this”
Week 5: “But I’m going to anyway”

The course covered:

• Bee biology and life cycles
• Hive types and equipment
• Seasonal management
• Disease recognition and treatment
• Honey extraction
• Legal requirements

The Setup

April 2018: Acquired first colony

Equipment purchased:

• 2 National hives with frames and foundation
• Protective suit and gloves
• Smoker and hive tool
• Feeder and various supplies
• Books (many books)

Total cost: ~£350

Location: Corner of garden, facing southeast, with wind protection and flight path away from neighbours.

Expectations: Maybe get some honey, probably lose the colony over winter, learn something either way.

Early Days (Spring 2018)

First Inspection

Opening the hive for the first time was terrifying:

• 40,000 bees suddenly exposed
• Trying to remember what I’m looking for
• Handling frames without squashing bees
• Smoke management
• Fear of getting stung (inevitability, not possibility)
• Time pressure (bees don’t like prolonged inspections)

Duration of first inspection: 15 minutes
Duration of subsequent inspections: 10-15 minutes
Stings during first year: 8 (mostly my own clumsiness)

What You’re Actually Looking For

Each inspection needs to check:

1. Queen status - Is she present? Laying? Healthy?
2. Brood pattern - Compact? Spotty? Worker or drone?
3. Population - Growing? Stable? Declining?
4. Stores - Enough honey and pollen for colony needs?
5. Space - Room for expansion or time to add boxes?
6. Disease signs - Varroa mites, foul brood, chalkbrood, nosema?
7. Temperament - Calm or aggressive?
8. Swarming preparation - Queen cells present?

This is a lot to assess in 10 minutes while bees fly around your head.

Challenges (Year 1)

Swarming

June 2018: Colony swarmed despite precautions.

Came home to find half the bees gone, clustered in neighbour’s apple tree. Spent afternoon:

1. Panicking
2. Googling “how to catch swarm”
3. Borrowing ladder
4. Shaking bees into box
5. Hoping queen went in
6. Introducing them to new hive

Success rate: Somehow worked. New colony established.

Learning: Swarm prevention is difficult. Bees do what they want.

Varroa Mites

Every beekeeper’s persistent problem:

• Parasitic mites that weaken colonies
• Vector for diseases
• Require management, not elimination
• Treatment options have trade-offs

Treatment chosen: Oxalic acid vaporisation (winter) and monitoring (summer)

Effectiveness: Partially. Mite counts remained manageable but required vigilance.

Wasps

Late summer problem:

• Wasps attempt to rob honey
• Weak colonies vulnerable
• Reduces entrance, increases defence
• Removed wasp nest from shed

Casualties: One weak colony significantly harassed, but survived.

Nosema

September 2018: Signs of nosema (bee dysentery):

• Spotting around hive entrance
• Weakened bees
• Reduced population

Treatment: None proven effective. Focused on:

• Strong colonies (better resistance)
• Good ventilation (reduces moisture)
• Replacing old comb (reduces spore load)
• Monitoring only

Colony recovered by spring.

Winter Losses

December 2018-March 2019: Two colonies go into winter, one survives.

Lost colony died in February:

• Stores present (not starvation)
• No obvious disease
• Possibly queen failure
• Possibly varroa damage

Outcome: 50% survival rate (about average for beginners)

What’s Harder Than Expected

Time Commitment

Weekly inspections during active season (April-September):

• 30 minutes inspection per hive
• 30 minutes prep and cleanup
• Additional time for interventions

Total: ~2-3 hours weekly, 6 months per year

Plus equipment maintenance, reading, and problem-solving.

Knowledge Requirements

Need to understand:

• Bee biology and behaviour
• Seasonal management
• Disease identification
• Weather impact on foraging
• Local forage availability
• Equipment maintenance
• Basic carpentry (hive repairs)

Continuous learning essential.

Physical Demands

Beekeeping is more physical than expected:

• Lifting heavy honey supers (20kg+)
• Awkward positions during inspections
• Working in full sun in protective suit
• Back strain from bending over hives

Not sedentary hobby.

Emotional Investment

Colonies are living superorganisms:

• Worry when population declines
• Stress about disease signs
• Guilt when treatment fails
• Satisfaction when they thrive
• Grief when they die

More emotionally engaging than anticipated.

What’s Better Than Expected

Observation and Learning

Every inspection reveals something:

• Intricate comb construction
• Division of labour
• Communication dances
• Problem-solving behaviour
• Adaptation to conditions

Never boring, always teaching.

Community

Beekeeping community is welcoming:

• Local association meetings and talks
• Experienced beekeepers generous with advice
• Shared frustration and success
• Cross-generational participation
• Practical, hands-on culture

Contrast to academic conferences appreciated.

Cognitive Break

Completely different from usual work:

• Physical, not computational
• Natural, not artificial
• Living system, not designed artefact
• Requires presence and observation
• Unpredictable and uncontrollable

Mental reset valuable.

Unexpected Connections

Beekeeping intersects with:

• Urban ecology
• Environmental monitoring (led to pollution experiments)
• IoT and sensors (led to hive monitoring projects)
• Citizen science networks
• Local food systems

Tangential nature enables surprising connections.

Honey (Eventually)

First Harvest (August 2018)

Managed to extract honey from surviving colony:

Yield: 12kg (about 24 jars)
Quality: Variable (some crystallised, some liquid)
Taste: Better than expected (floral, complex)

Process:

1. Remove frames with capped honey
2. Brush/shake off bees
3. Uncap cells with hot knife
4. Spin in extractor (borrowed from association)
5. Strain through filters
6. Jar and label

Time: 4 hours for 12kg
Mess factor: High (everything becomes sticky)
Satisfaction: Substantial

Economics

Input costs (first year):

• Equipment: £350
• Bees: £180
• Treatments and supplies: £80
• Association membership and course: £60 Total: £670

Output value:

• 12kg honey @ £10/kg retail: £120

Net: -£550

Return on investment: Terrible
Value as Friday night experiment: Excellent

Year 2 and Beyond

2019: Expanded to 3 colonies, improved management
Harvest: 28kg across three hives

2020: Lost 2 colonies over winter (COVID prevented proper autumn treatment)
Harvest: 8kg from surviving colony

2021: Rebuilt to 2 colonies, split one to create third
Harvest: 15kg

2022: All three colonies survived winter (first time!)
Harvest: 32kg (best year)

2023: Ongoing

Lessons Learned

Biology Is Messy

Unlike computer systems:

• Bees don’t follow instructions
• Variability is inherent
• Control is limited
• Failure is frequent and often unexplained

This is humbling and educational.

Observation Beats Intervention

Better to:

• Watch and understand first
• Intervene minimally
• Let colony self-regulate where possible
• Recognize limits of control

Over-management often makes things worse.

Local Knowledge Matters

Books and courses provide framework, but:

• Local weather patterns
• Urban forage availability
• Pest and disease prevalence
• Best treatment timing

All vary by location. Local beekeepers’ experience invaluable.

Failure Is Expected

Colony losses are normal:

• National average: 30-40% winter losses
• Higher for beginners
• Multiple causes (often simultaneous)
• Some unexplained

Treating failure as data rather than personal inadequacy essential.

The IoT Tangent

Beekeeping led to technology experiments:

Hive Monitoring System

Built sensors to track:

• Internal temperature (cluster position)
• External temperature and humidity
• Weight (honey accumulation)
• Sound (activity levels, swarming detection)

Challenges:

• Bees fill gaps with propolis (bee glue)
• Humidity and condensation destroy electronics
• Power supply in garden
• Data interpretation

Status: Ongoing, repeatedly rebuilt

Value: Learned electronics, data logging, failure diagnosis

This spawned its own Friday night experiments.

The Pollution Tangent

Realised bees collect from 3km radius:

• Visiting hundreds of thousands of flowers
• Sampling wide area
• Concentrating environmental markers in honey

Led to experiments using bees as pollution bio-indicators.

Separate project, but emerged from beekeeping observation.

Why Continue?

Five years in, why persist?

Continued Learning

Still discovering:

• Colony behaviour nuances
• Seasonal pattern variations
• Management technique refinements
• Disease dynamics

Depth remains.

Tangible Results

Unlike much research (papers, metrics), beekeeping produces:

• Honey (edible output)
• Living colonies (visible success)
• Garden pollination (observable impact)

Satisfaction different from academic achievement.

Cognitive Diversity

Break from computational work:

• Physical activity
• Living systems
• Outdoor time
• Different kind of problem-solving

Mental health benefit significant.

Community Connection

Regular association meetings:

• Practical advice
• Shared experiences
• Social interaction outside work
• Intergenerational learning

Different from academic networking.

Would I Recommend It?

For everyone? No.

For curious academics? Maybe.

Prerequisites:

• Time (2-3 hours weekly in season)
• Space (garden or allotment)
• Physical ability (lifting, bending)
• Tolerance for failure and stings
• Comfort with mess and unpredictability
• Interest in observation and learning

Benefits:

• Completely different from usual work
• Steep learning curve
• Living system engagement
• Practical skill development
• Community participation
• Occasional honey

Challenges:

• Time commitment
• Emotional investment
• Physical demands
• Financial cost (poor ROI)
• Regular attention required (can’t neglect for weeks)

The Friday Night Experiment Test

Does beekeeping qualify as Friday night experiment?

✓ Tangential to main work - Completely unrelated to HCI research
✓ High failure rate - Colonies die, experiments fail
✓ Practical doing - Not just theoretical
✓ Learning focus - Not about productivity
✓ Playful approach - Trying things, observing results
✓ Low stakes - No career impact if fails

Yes. Perfect Friday night experiment material.

Conclusion

Five years of beekeeping has taught me:

• More about bees (still learning)
• Limits of control
• Value of observation
• Comfort with failure
• Appreciation for complexity
• Different ways of thinking

The honey is a bonus. The real value is the practice of curiosity in an unfamiliar domain.

And occasionally, like Friday night experiments should, it spawns unexpected tangents (IoT sensors, pollution monitoring) that become projects of their own.

That’s the point. Not optimising bee management or maximising honey production. But maintaining the capacity to be curious, to experiment, to fail, and to keep learning.

Friday nights (and weekends) well spent.