Welcome — and thank you for being here.
This is the very first post on this blog. Whether you’re a beekeeper, a researcher or just someone who has stumbled here out of curiosity — you are warmly welcome. This space has been created to share a journey that is still unfolding. This blog is not meant to be a one-way broadcast. It is a conversation. I warmly invite you to subscribe if you’d like to follow the journey as it unfolds and also to comment to share your own observations, ideas, or questions.
Read below to find out more.This blog marks the third year of a ten year journey — one that started in a very simple way: with curiosity. Like many beekeepers, I wanted to better understand what was happening inside my hives. Not by opening them more often, but by learning to pay closer attention to the debris that collects under a ventilation screen.
A Ten Year Plan
It led to the writing of Bottom Up Beekeeping, and has since evolved into a long-term, longitudinal study focused on one central idea: that the fragments falling from a colony can tell a remarkably rich story about colony life.
Month by month, year by year, debris is being recorded and examined. Each fragment of colony debris offers clues about bee behaviour, colony health, seasonal activity, and even the wider environment in which the bees live.
Viewed in isolation, any single observation is interesting. But when these observations are brought together over long periods of time, something much more powerful begins to happen. Patterns emerge. Seasonal rhythms become clearer. Growth, decline and everything in between.
This project is now inspired by some of the great long-term time-series studies in ecology and biology. These datasets have transformed scientific understanding precisely because they take the long view. They allow researchers to see change unfolding slowly, sometimes over decades, and they provide the foundation from which meaningful, testable research questions can emerge. The aim here is similar: to build a ten year long-term time-series dataset of honey bee colony debris for colonies from within my home apiary.
The motivation is straightforward — to observe carefully, to track how patterns change over time, and to let the data itself guide the development of scientific questions about colony health and behaviour.
I strongly believe in hypothesis-driven science. Working with debris over the past few years has already sparked many possible lines of inquiry. But identifying a single question to pursue in depth takes time, focus, and resources. Rather than rushing that process, this project deliberately takes a longer view.
For now, the priority is simply to learn from the debris itself: watching how debris changes season by season, year by year. The plan is to collect and curate this data over a ten-year period. Over that timescale, the dataset with multiple hives, should not only reveal long-term trends, but also create multiple opportunities to develop and test focused research questions that can deepen our understanding of honey bee colonies.
At its heart, this is also a very practical idea. By observing what naturally falls from a hive, we can gain insight in a low-impact way — without disturbance, without intrusion, and with a perspective that complements traditional inspection methods.
This blog will serve as a living record of that journey.
Here you’ll find updates, reflections on emerging patterns, methodological notes, ideas for future research, and — importantly — opportunities for others to engage with the project. I would to find ways to involve others more, but haven’t as yet found the found the time to consider that properly as yet. Whether you are a beekeeper, researcher, student, blogger or simply someone curious about bees, you are very welcome here.
11 responses to “BLOG”
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Congratulations, Ray, on identifying and researching an essential part of beekeeping that has probably never been considered by many before. You have done beekeeping a great service by raising awareness and showing a new way forward to a better understanding of how a colony is doing without resorting to high levels of interference by inspecting it too often.
It has been an honour to work with you from the start of your book to being the first person to read your blog. Thank you. -
Thank you for your kind words. Your encouragement and support from the very beginning of this journey have been such an important part of it all. I’m so grateful to you for helping me find my own voice as a writer. That is a wonderful gift to receive, and one I’ll always appreciate. It wouldn’t of happened without you. Ray
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Looking forward to your debris analysis Ray. Apologies if I’ve missed it but… an important piece of information to include in your details might be the position of your examined hives ?
All the best with your Blog
Teresa, Celbridge, 🇮🇪
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Thanks for subscribing. Yes, important info to include and tbh something I hadn’t even considered. I’m sure that there will be other things to add to that growing list. There’s more to creating a website than I first thought! As things progress please do feel free any observations, insights etc.
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Teresa, many thanks for your earlier suggestion about including info about my location. Eventually got round to it and is now on the about me page. Ray
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Thank you for setting this up Ray. As a varroa resistant beekeeper using the mite drop count method, my insert trays/bottom boards are crucial to me. I realised very quickly that there was a lot to be learned from all the other debris on the board, and I now very often know what I will find inside the colony just from looking at the entrance and the insert tray first. That means I can intervene much less.
I’m no expert though so I really look forward to learning more through your research and insights.
Steve McGrath
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Thanks for being here Steve. Yes, these observations can be very useful in determining if, when and how we intervene. As things move forward please do feel free to share your own observations, insights and learning.
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Cogratulations and many thanks, personally and on behalf of other beekeepers like me, for going to the trouble of setting up your website and taking on the admin task that it will inevitably involve.
I have hives in 4 different locations and I have not treated for varroa for a few years. Its early days yet for me to assess what level of progress there has been in moving towards a bees/varroa coexistence/eqilibrium in my hives, if indeed this is attainable.
Having purchased your book a few months ago I have now modified my inspection board procedure to include taking photos of the boards as well as doing a varroa count and increasing the frequency during the winter. I look forward to tracking and comparing what I find based on repeated similar inspections over the coming months. I admit that the extent of the debris analysis that you undertake seems quite overwhelming to me so I’m quite happy to proceed on a more simple “baby steps” approach, as least for now.
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Thanks for being here. I’m a fan of the small step approach to most things in life. As you say two simple photographs over consecutive weeks can reveal so much. Please do feel free to share any insights or observations that you may make. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
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Really looking forward to reading your blogs and research. I look back on the development of our understanding of varroa resistance and the mechanisms behind it; our current knowledge would still be lacking were it not for reading the debris on the bottom boards and for fresh eyes looking at the information buried in the mess. I’ve every confidence it will be helpful in researching future challenges honeybees face and dare I say we can improve on knowledge we already have. I hope you’ve many ‘Eureka’ moments. Thank you Ray
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Thank you for being here and for your kind words. I’m really looking forward to it too. Please do feel free to share ideas as things progress. Definitely looking forward to those ‘Eureka’ moments.
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