Oor Wullie.

Willie Robson from Chain Bridge Honey Farm had offered to come and offer some guidance to the Newbattle beekeepers (most of whom are novices) about their honey. The expression on his face suggests that it is a task that gives him great pleasure.
 
He’s a second generation beekeeper (with a son making a third) who has somewhere in the region of 1,600 bee colonies to care for, a responsibility that affects his attitude towards the rights and wrongs of beekeeping. His situation means that his bees have had nearly 70 years to evolve to suit his family’s methods of beekeeping and his family have had the same amount of time to adapt their methods to suit their bees. As a consequence, although I like the man and have a great respect for him and what he does to support the hobby beekeeper, I listen carefully to what he has to say but don’t, necessarily, think his ideas are applicable to me and my methods or bees.
 
That aside, the day was not too good for me, I had spent some time over the last week trying, and failing, to produce a presentable block of wax, ditto a jar of creamed honey, but I did have two varieties of liquid honey for him to inspect. It was only when I walked into the room that I realised they were still on the kitchen table. However, I did come away with his autograph in a book wot he had wrote.