From Beekeeping to Fly-tipping - an Un-BEE-lievable Edinburgh Instruments Tale

Edinburgh Instruments Operations Group Manager, Mark, is an avid apiarist – more commonly known as beekeeper! He oversees four of his own hives and harvests honey for friends and family. He is passionate about beekeeping and its positive impact on the environment and is proud of his role in saving the depleting number of bee species worldwide.   

Last year, Bathgate town centre faced frequent issues with bee swarming. Swarming occurs when a large group of honey bees leave their home colony and fly off to establish a new colony, essentially creating two colonies from one. It is a natural method of propagation that occurs in response to crowding within the colony. 

To help with this issue in his beloved West Lothian, Mark took it upon himself to be a proactive and responsible beekeeper. He did this by creating homemade bee swarm traps. This was to prevent the bees from swarming in public built-up areas like the town centre. It worked a trick! so, this year, he sought to do the same thing. Armed with an old container box he acquired from us – Edinburgh Instruments, he went on his mission to keep both the bees and people safe. He placed his swarm trap 20ft up on a platform in the trees and has been monitoring it for weeks.   

However, last weekend, while on his way to check the trap, he noticed it had been dislodged from the tree, was now on the ground, and had sadly been vandalised. The box also contained some of Mark’s beekeeping equipment. Mark headed home to get his car to safely remove the box and start making a new bee swarm trap.

However, other good citizens of West Lothian noticed the box, which looked discarded to passers-by (like a potential fly-tipping). As per good civic duty, they duly reported it to UPS, the council and thankfully raised the issue with us too.   

Thank you to everyone who reached out to let us know about the dislodged shipping box. We thought that you would be interested in the full story, and this incident gave us the opportunity to highlight one of our staff’s great passions. Unfortunately, a good intention didn’t quite go to plan this time. However, we can confirm that the box has now been safely removed and stored, and Mark is BUZZ-ing to continue on his mission as a responsible apiarist (beekeeper) in West Lothian, and we hope that our homemade swarm boxes BEE-hive themselves in the future….