Danny McGee Bee Keeper

Through some strange twists, I’ve been more involved with bees this year than I’d ever have expected. In Summer I was in Amy MacDonald’s back garden photographing her for a bee feature with BBC. Then a little more recently I was at the Wash House Garden in the East End of Glasgow when I met Danny McGee, the resident bee keeper.

I’ve spent some time at Wash House this year documenting the project and the people who make it happen.

This day, Danny was there for a hive inspection, checking to see how close to a harvest they were. He very graciously kitted me up in the finest bee keep regalia and let me loose.

In these first images, Danny is cutting hemp and burning it alongside other materials to create smoke, which pacifies the bees as he explores the hive. At one point, the smoke wasn’t enough and the cacophony of buzzing grew louder and higher pitched as Danny, calm as can be advised that I step back. I had annoyed the bees. I wasn’t slow in shifting.

I’ll be posting more from my time at The Wash House Garden soon.