Scything a wildflower meadow for beekeeping

I love honey and am fascinated by the lives of bees but have always been slightly put off keeping them by the amount of intervention that conventional beekeeping entails. So it was fascinating to meet the Lune Valley Community Beekeepers and talk to them about their ‘natural beekeeping’ while teaching them how to scythe.

The group have taken on a site where they plan to build a resource centre and, in the meantime have planted a fantastic wildflower meadow with a mix of annual and perennial species.

The meadow has been left until the end of the season to provide as much forage for the bees but was still a riot of colour. It was now time to cut the long meadow grass and I was happy to show them how to mow it using Austrian scythes.