In this vlog, the creator recounts their experience at Apimondia 2025, the world beekeeping conference held in Copenhagen, attended by delegates from 134 countries. The narrative begins with a chaotic travel ordeal caused by a drone incident that shut down Copenhagen Airport, leading to multiple flight delays. Upon arrival, the speaker describes the well‑run Bella Center exhibition, the city's pleasant weather, and personal moments in botanical gardens. They share detailed food experiences—from hotel burgers and a Copenhagen barbecue bar to evolving opinions on expo catering, highlighting a standout hot‑dog stall. The core of the reflection focuses on the conference’s showcase of new beekeeping products and innovations, prompting a shift in mindset: moving from a product‑centric view to valuing the problem‑solving conversations that lead to those products. This insight influences the creator’s future direction for Black Mountain Honey, transitioning from technical, instructional videos about hive management toward cinematic storytelling that captures emotions, interactions, and broader beekeeping culture. The speaker emphasizes the lasting value of the friendships and networks forged at Apimondia, believing they will benefit both personal growth and the honey business. The vlog concludes with a call for inclusive, ethical beekeeping practices and an invitation for others to attend future events.
Chapters
I'm leaving Apimondia full of ideas and enthusiasm, but the thing that I'm going to take away that I will cherish the most is the connections and the friendships that I've built since I've been here. Apimondia is the world beekeeping conference, and it was held in Copenhagen in 2025, and over 134 different countries attended. I'm still in Copenhagen now in the botanical gardens, just chilling out in the sun with some bees that I found inside the city centre. And I tell you what, this is a stunning city. stunning location. I have been here for a couple of hours now and not a single person has come here. And just look at this wonderful sunshine. We've done very well with sunshine in Copenhagen. But in this video, I want to give you the rundown of my experience of Apimondia, and we'll chuck in some beautiful visuals for you to enjoy along the way. So let's start right at the beginning with An absolute shocker of a journey over here. I was due to get to Copenhagen at about 11 o'clock on Monday night. My flight left Manchester at 9 PM, and the flight was delayed through till about 1 PM at night, so a 4-hour delay. Very, very frustrating. And I was first in line for the queue, literally about to put my foot on the plane, when one of the Ryanair staff got something coming through their radio, and then they just turned around and shouted out to everyone, I'm really sorry, but this flight is not going to be taking off because Russia is attacking Copenhagen Airport and it is now closed. A drone incident over Copenhagen Airport, the most serious attack on the national infrastructure to date. Flights were grounded when drones flew over the airport. This footage obtained by Danish broadcaster TV2 shows objects flying above Copenhagen Airport as it was shut down for hours over a drone alarm Monday night. So we went back into the airport. The flight got delayed until 6 o'clock the next morning, so an additional 5-hour delay. I went and found myself a nice little seat in the airport. I was happy. It was dark. It was nice and warm. And I thought, I can deal with this, no problem. Get a little bit of shut-eye. We go again in the morning. Recharged the next morning, went again, got through security, and I got straight into Copenhagen, into my hotel, chucked my bags down, and I went straight off to the conference. As soon as I got got to the conference, it was clear how well managed the whole exhibition and the show was going to be. There were lots and lots and lots of volunteers, but everyone seemed to know what they were doing. And I managed to get there just before the opening ceremonies, but I did actually miss filming the opening ceremony, so I cut it very fine indeed. But I don't know about you, if you ever go to shows like this, the first place that I want to go is to go and get a coffee, which is exactly what I did. I bet you did not think I was going to say that. I was probably going to say like the Appy Expo, or go and meet some friends, or go and learn about something. But no, I went and got myself a really Strong coffee and went and had a stroll around the expo whilst drinking my coffee. And my first impression was, wow, how nice is the Bella Center? It is clean. The public transport getting there was brilliant. Loads of nice hotel options. I'm gonna struggle a little bit going back to the UK and have to trade in all the nice food that I've had over here. I had some really nice burgers at my hotel. I actually had a wonderful stay in my hotel. I'm not going to try and pronounce the name because I'll definitely get it wrong, but I will stick it in the description and it comes highly recommended if you're staying in Copenhagen. And every single thing that I've eaten was right up there in terms of I also went to a bar with my sister. My sister actually does live in Copenhagen. She's lived here for about 10 years now, I think, and I've not been over here enough, and I'm kind of regretting it a bit looking around because Copenhagen is stunning. But I went out for a meal with my sister one of those evenings as well to a bar called War Pigs. War Pigs. It was proper American-style barbecue. Think brisket, pulled pork, smoked links, chicken, ribs, everything. 5 or 6 different types of sauces, dill pickles, spicy pickles, mac and cheese, coleslaw, baked beans. I think I've memorized the menu, and I think I obsessed a little bit too much over the food. So if you came here for the bee talk and you're getting bored of the food, I will move on to the bees very, very shortly. But while we're on the topic of food, let's talk about the food options at the expo. Because on the other video that I did, the one where I was showing you around the expo, I did say the food there was— it's a little bit rubbish. I'm not a massive fan of sandwiches with bread that's not that fresh and toppings that don't really have that much flavor. I kind of prefer just to not eat it or have a banana or have some nuts or something. So I formed my judgment based upon, you know, going and buying these sandwiches. And then the next day I saw that they had these hot dog guys, There who are rolling these nice fresh hot dogs and putting them in a hollowed-out baguette with ketchup and mustard or any sauces that you want. And probably the nicest hot dogs I've ever eaten. So I'm going to retract what I said. I've eaten loads of nice food at the Expo. I've had brilliant cups of coffee. And it is a really good hot dog. So what's so brilliant about these expos is that you get to see the different products that are out there. You get to see the innovations, you get to see the manufacturers and the producers that you're used to working to with existing products, and you can give the feedback to them. But what's more exciting for me is the new innovations, the new ways that people are trying to work, the new products they're developing, the problems they're trying to fix. And whilst I get excited about the physical product— and this is so relevant because I've just come from this social enterprise, BB, that doesn't like the word product and they want to focus on the interaction surrounding the transaction. Again, they probably won't call it a transaction, but when I think about it, I do think that I'm probably in agreement with them. It's not necessarily the new product that I'm excited about, it's the conversation about how they got to that new product. What problem were they trying to solve? What were the pitfalls? What went wrong? How many times did it fail before you got to something that you thought worked? And these are brilliant questions, and these are questions that I really need to start asking because I actually do put a huge amount of emphasis on that conversational piece there, on the discussion surrounding the product. But I've never thought of it like that before. I've never sat down and thought, what's more important? The product that solves the problem, or the problem. And I think ironically that change in mindset could actually lead to better products. I do like products. I think there's a place in life for products, but I think we need to not put all of the focus on them and try and understand the interactions that are working to build them and push them through at the rate that they're coming. What I will take away is really positive memories of a wonderful conference And I walk away from the conference knowing that I'm far better connected than before. And you know what? It probably will improve my life and Black Mountain Honey at the same time. But what a nicer way of doing it. You might see this on the YouTube videos as well, the change in tact. We're moving away from real hard education, where we talk about the double brood configuration and the way the bees sit in the hive and the thermal dynamics and the science. And there will be a place for that within the Black Mountain Honey ecosystem. And we're moving towards trying to create beautiful films that capture these interactions, that capture these emotions, and to try and spark interest from people who maybe have never thought about keeping bees. So that's what I'm taking away. That's what I'm most excited about. And if you're considering coming to one of these events in the future, keep that in mind. I've not heard one person say to anybody else, that's the wrong way of doing it. I've been doing it 30 years. You need to do it like me. I hate that attitude. And you'll see from my videos, I really do not like it when people say that. I want people to advise me who have done it 30 or 40 different ways and failed lots and lots of times. I'll never look down or talk down on anyone for their particular view on the way that they keep their bees. As long as it's ethical and they're doing what is right for the bees, then I think beekeeping should be a really broad church. So Apimondia 2025 has been sensational. I have met some brilliant people, I've met some old friends, I've made memories that I will cherish for a lifetime, but most of all I'm taking away a shifted mindset to see how I can pay the bees back for all
