Spend A Day Behind The Scenes With Just Alex - Filming Beekeeping Content

If you search for beekeeping on Google, there is one name that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Just Alex. I'm absolutely delighted today to welcome Alex into my apiary. He's coming down to get some queens, to get a nucleus colony, and he is doing a full video on his channel showing the process of coming up to our apiary and getting our bees. How on earth can I compete with that? Alex's videos are in a league of their own. But in this video, what we're going to do is we are going to do a behind-the-scenes video. of Just Alex coming and collecting a nuc from Black Mountain Honey. I'm on my way to Richard's apiary to meet him now. The sun is out, the bees are flying. This is gonna be so, so much fun. Right, so I'm not gonna lie, we filmed this once already and I got it completely wrong, but because Alex is a YouTuber, he knows that it's not always take 1 that counts. Take 2, take 3 is a lot better. Alex, pleased to see you.

Good to see you as well.

Thank you so much for coming down here. You're coming down to get a nuc today. You excited?

I'm very excited. I've travelled, I think, about 3 hours through the Welsh hills and everything. It's so beautiful up here and I'm very excited.

Yeah. We have got the best day. I was just saying there, sometimes in this valley here it pours down with rain. And what was it, what was the rain like the other day here, Richard?

Heavy.

Heavy, like it was the worst storm ever. But we've got a beautiful day for it today and it's, uh, it's going to be really, really good. First things first, I've got you a present. Um, I know we've already done this already, but there we go. I've got you a beekeeping suit.

Thank you.

Wow.

Hopefully it fits for my six foot five height.

I got you a Black Mountain honey hat, limited edition.

Thank you.

So in this video here, this is going to be the final formal bit. We are just doing behind the scenes. We're going to learn a bit about Alex, learn a bit about his beekeeping, show you all the stings, show you what goes wrong, and just have a really good fun day.

Well excited. I'm looking forward to it. Oh yeah, I do have the mic. I thought this was gone for some reason.

I took it off just to be talking. Yeah, no, we're good. What do you use in your smoker?

I use a mixer. Packaging like that, a box of wood bits that you gave me.

Oh, like the pellets, they're good, aren't they?

Yeah, and then straw, pine cones.

Nice, I like pine cones, they smell good, don't they?

Mix of everything that I could find. I tried rosemary, I tried lighting it and then sticking in loads of like dried rosemary.

Was that good?

It didn't burn very long, but it was Yeah, good to go?

Yeah, let's do it.

Can I get one— no, I'm gonna get a shot of us, all 3 of us walking down, but maybe when we are walking into the apiary.

So do you know what I can do if you want quickly now? I can get the drone up, I can set the drone on auto track, and it'll just follow us down.

Yeah, if you don't mind. Do you get really bored of like all the filmmaking stuff? We've only done one lot, haven't we really?

You liked it when we did it. You didn't want to do it, but you did. You enjoyed it.

Right, let's get this done. I guess it breaks up the day a bit maybe, and it's— yeah, if you're in a rush to get things done, nah.

Yeah, you need to basically write the day off for that, and that's what I do now. Write the day off for filming.

Yeah, that's what I do.

I'm so excited at watching what you do with it, because I just like— because this is how I started the video, saying if you search for beekeeping on Google, The number one name is just Alex.

It's nuts, isn't it? I'm not even a proper beekeeper. Yeah, but you already know what I'm doing.

But you are. And this is the thing, yeah, you, you've come straight out of nowhere, but your video editing style just smashes everyone out of the park. Like, it's, it's 100 times better. And I remember seeing your first video and clicking on it and thinking, oh, I remember thinking, oh, I like that thumbnail, I'm going to click on it. And I remember watching it because I think, oh, that's beekeeping, I'm going to watch it. And then got half an hour in and it finished, and I thought, that just kept me like captivated the whole way through. And then I watch all of them now. Your video editing is like 10 out of 10. It must take you ages.

I'm glad that some people enjoy watching it. I'm very grateful for it because it means that I can do like the filmmaking as my job, and then the beekeeping is sort of—

Hobby.

The content that it is for. Yeah, yeah, I don't need to. Yeah, I don't need to earn money from the which is a good job because I wouldn't. They love the mic and then they and it gets one gets trapped in the fur of the microphone and it goes and you've got that as the audio for the whole thing and it ruins it. Let me just think. Am I going to set? No, I think I will stand here because then I'm behind the wind and it should be better audio. So good. Laurence, would you be able to tell me what is in this hive and what it is and what's going on?

Yeah, so what we specialize— So we're kind of halfway through the video, Ellis. What do you think, kind of, how's that gone?

It was so interesting to look through a hive which is that calm because I've never seen bees that chilled out. Like, they were— they weren't coming off the frames, they weren't stinging you in the face. You had your veil down the whole time. No, really, really impressive. And I guess that is kind of testament to good bee breeding. It was really interesting, incredible stuff. Yeah.

So tell me, tell me a bit, Alex, about how we're going to structure the rest of this video. I think you just kind of touched on it before, like what are the other bits you want to get filmed?

So I'm going to film a little bit of interview stuff because I want to get some like backstory to set the scene, like who is Laurence from Black Mountain Honey, who is Richard, and I think I'd like to get that maybe down there by the stream where it's a little bit less windy.

All right, cool.

So we'll film that, but then that will actually go Before this, so it's a bit of mix around of footage.

I'm intrigued to see how it all gets structured because no doubt you've done some filming before you get here and you'll do some when you get here.

Yeah, I did some filming back at my site and a bit of filming on the way driving here. Yeah, and then I'll do this filming and then it all comes together in the edit. Like, it's all kind of a mess currently. There's footage from here, there, and everywhere, and then some footage which will come from like Like a few years ago as well. But then it always sort of comes together in the edit. I'm not very good at visualising exactly how a video will look, like when it's done. I can't visualise it. I have to just kind of be quite reactionary as it slowly warps into a finished video.

And do you plan and structure them at all? Because I'm notoriously bad for just going out and saying, right, I've got 10 titles of films, because my ones are a little bit shorter, aren't they? And I'll just go out and just try and freestyle. But do you, do you like structure them? Do you write anything down, or do you just go out and freestyle?

I have random ideas in the middle of the night which I write down. I have a notebook. But to be honest, it all sort of— I do very little planning. I should do more, but my brain doesn't do planning very well. And I often, yeah, I just turn up at my apiary, get the camera out, and then just start filming, and then things happen. But then I will remember What I wrote down in my notepad, and things will come back to me, but it's very mix-mash of—

Some people really enjoy the planning side of it, don't they? They'll spend 90% of the time doing the planning. Project management thing is 90% planning, 10% execution. And I'm the opposite. I'm just, let's get out there and do it. As you saw with my drone filming where I forgot to hit the record button twice.

Yeah, I find I do very little planning. And then when I execute the task, I realise that I should have done a lot more. But I always think I should really have planned for this, but I never really learn. It's always the same.

We're very similar in that sense, I think. What I was going to say is, so how long do you think this video will be? We've stood there and talked for maybe like 30 minutes, I think, about this bit here, and we've done some filming before, and you've done some. So you've probably got— there'll probably be like a couple of hours, maybe 2 and a half hours of raw footage. How long do you think the edited video could be compressed down into?

The great thing about filmmaking is that it's— it can be any length that you want it to be. I could make this all into a 5-minute or even 1-minute cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Or I could leave it all in and some people would be interested because they'd get to see everything. So I like to go for a bit of a balance. I don't want to include everything because I feel like it might get boring for lots of people. But I also don't want to cut it too short so that nobody gets to hear the info and the details. So it will probably be maybe between 20— no, 15 and 20 minutes. I reckon about that for the amount of stuff that we've shot and the interest of the subject and stuff.

And I think you pitch that really well on your YouTube channel in that you do go into a really good amount of detail, but the videos, you know, it's not like an hour and a half long, is it? And you're always playing their algorithm, aren't you? Do you have that in the back of your mind, like, in terms of, will YouTube accept this video? Will it do well? Or do you just try and do good videos?

Um, I used to think about, like, what do YouTube want from me? Like, how— um, yeah, I tried to plan my videos for the YouTube algorithm and try and work with it. But I actually learned that my videos end up doing a lot better if I just make the video that I want to make. And make the video that I feel is right. Like, that ends up actually— and it's great because I don't have to think. I don't think about what YouTube wants me to make now. I just do something which I think that I feel like is going to be an interesting thing to watch. And then if you think something's interesting, normally there's loads of other people who think that thing is interesting too. So yeah, that's sort of what I do. I don't really make my videos for the algorithm so much.

It's brilliant, this, because I I love watching your videos and I kind of admire them so much and look up to you as a content creator with all the hundreds of thousands of subs that you've got. And I've tried to change my approach and definitely went through like a shock factor phase.

Yeah, like clickbait and like trying to capture the audience.

And trying to capture them and trying to like, oh, you'll never believe what's going to be in this beehive. And I think that there's an element of that that you do need. You can't give everything away on the thumbnail. But then I look at your thumbnails and I think, well, hang on, no, he gives everything away on the thumbnail and he gives everything away on The— on the description, but then he massively over-delivers when they click on it. So you're almost kind of betting that some people will click, and then once they click, they stay.

It is a bit of a backwards approach that I've taken. Like, lots of people think capture people with the thumbnail and title, and then you don't need to give them so much. Like the idea of a book, you want the book front cover to be super interesting, gripping, catch people's eye in the bookshop. Once they've bought it, and they're at home, you can make the book sound a little bit boring. It's just a cross-section inside. Yeah. But I think with YouTube, I try to do the opposite. And often I'll go for a thumbnail which isn't so engaging, isn't so like, wow, but the people who do click on it feel like they're getting way more than they kind of were buying into. So if you— and if you— I think if you overdeliver, you never have people who are Sort of upset with what they've— their choice. Like, they feel like they've got a lot. And if people feel like they've got a lot of value, then I think it makes people feel good, and they are more likely to then watch the next ones and then get to know that, like, ah, I like this person's videos, I'll watch again next time.

It's really good. No one feels aggrieved. I think you hit on a really important point there as well, which is like that people build the rapport with you And that's what's so nice. And I do, I'm very— I wouldn't say jealous, but I'm envious of the position because people will subscribe to your channel and they'll be like, I can't wait for that next Juxta Alex film or documentary or video. And I don't think they really care what it's about. It could be truffle hunting, it could be, you know, it could be skydiving next, it could be beekeeping, but they just want to see you. And, you know, you talk in a really nice way and it's quite calm and relaxing. It's pitched at the right level. But the best thing, and I think the reason that I like you but that YouTube likes you very much, is that it's so visually engaging. So you give all of those different shots and you kind of make it just— you can't click away because it's— and it's not like 2-second cuts, but they're really nice cuts. So tell me about how long would that take? So we've said here you've got like 2 and a half hours of footage, you're going to condense it down to maybe 15-20 minutes. How long would that take to edit?

It's a tricky one because every video is very different. If I'm making a video which includes lots of historical footage, it means that there might be days looking through old footage. And if there's a video which takes a long time to film over a year, maybe, you've got to remember back and piece together the story, and it's quite hard, and that takes time. But this, because I have shot it today, mainly today, And I will try and edit it maybe next week, so it's all fresh in my mind. I should be able to get it done in probably a week, like a week of like 5 days, like a working week of—

That's still a long time though, isn't it? I think people expect you go out with a camera and you just stick the USB cord and you download it and you just, you know, maybe 30 minutes of playing around, but it's not, is it? It is a full-time job editing videos.

Yeah, it takes a lot of time. But it's quite satisfying when you see this, this thing. Like, currently all the footage is on this SD card, like, and on that SD card. And it's crazy that you can take that, turn it, warp it into this story that then people can around the world can then watch and learn something from. It's quite amazing.

So Alex is off just filming with Richard at the moment, and it was amazing talking to Alex and getting some tips there. Like, and it's genuinely true, he has come out of nowhere and just taken the YouTube world, but also the beekeeping world by storm. We've got a few more bits here to film today, and then we're going to grab some food. Definitely needed a drink. It's actually quite warm here today. What I'm really keen to kind of understand from Alex though is maybe like a few more tips for my YouTube channel and what he's got planned going into 2024, but much, much further ahead of that as well. Like, what is next for Just Alex?

It's not often you can just sit next to a beehive and not worry about getting stung in the face.

No.

It's quite impressive.

It's kind of famous last words though, because I've done so many videos like that where you're like, oh yeah, these lovely calm bits, and just bang, and they get you in the cheek. How do you react to stings?

Are you like, oh, I mean, I think a normal reaction, like a little bit swollen. The itchiness, like the day after, is the worst thing, but I've never had any bad reactions.

Your channel, like people are, people like I said earlier on, people will love like following your journeys and stuff. How did it all start?

I guess when I was about 6, my mum had this little compact camera and it was like the most incredible thing ever. A little Canon, you turn it on, then the little lens moves out.

Oh, nice.

It was terrible quality, but I remember my mum had that and me and my brother, we used to play around with this camera all day. We used to love the fact that you could film something and then weeks after, years after, go back and look at it. And it was just fascinating. I guess it is amazing, amazing bit of technology, a camera.

Yeah.

And being able to capture something and then relive it whenever you want to look back at it. So that's where it kind of started, thanks to my mum's camera back in the day. But I kind of just never put the camera down after that. I've always been filming things. And it's really— when things happen when you're young, it's hard to know. You weren't really making conscious decisions. It was— it just sort of happened. And I guess I found it interesting playing around with the camera and then editing footage. And then I went through school. I didn't really know what I was gonna do, but because I'd been messing around with this camera this whole time and editing videos, I built up a skill. And I didn't even realize I had a skill, really. But when you do something for a long time, you kind of naturally get okay at it. Still, I wasn't very good, but I was employed by a company to make videos. I was part of a media team.

Oh, nice.

That was when I was, I think, 17, I started that. So, that— I fell into that job, and obviously I was doing more and more filming. And they were putting a lot of their videos onto YouTube. And at the time, me and my brother were running a YouTube channel, just like a part-time hobby thing.

Oh, what was that?

That was a channel about fishing. So, we used to go on these fishing adventures all over the world. And we used to just take a camera along like we are today and just film our adventures, edit them up into stories, and then put them on YouTube. And whilst we were working for this company making like product videos, we were doing this YouTube on the side, and we were like, we could maybe drop our jobs and do this YouTube thing full-time. But it was like, can we earn enough money from doing that? Is it going to be possible? And it's amazing, YouTube is now actually a place where people can make money. Like, so many people are on YouTube, advertisers obviously want to put adverts on YouTube, and people can make a living. And it's cool because, like, yeah, we managed to Upload these little YouTube videos and enough people would watch them so that it kind of— it meant that we could earn a living. And I was doing that fishing content for like until 2, 3 years ago, and I wanted to sort of experiment with other sorts of filmmaking. As a filmmaker, you don't want to film too much of one subject. Sometimes it can get boring.

So Says to the man who only films beekeeping.

Gosh, yeah, you do. Yeah, does it get boring filming just bees?

It does get boring, and I think this is where we'll go with like, this is why I love your channel so much, is because what they say on YouTube, and you'll know it, and you need to double down on your niche. Yeah, so for me, the niche is beekeeping. If I do a video about— I was just talking about pizzas over there— if I do a video about like how I make pizzas, all of the beekeepers who watch Black Mountain Honey just be like, what's this? They won't watch it. And then YouTube says, no, no thank you. And it will just give me 200 views or something like that. What you've done, and you've done it so well, is that your niche is Alex. So it doesn't matter what you do. And that's what I'm really like, I wish, I wish I had a channel like that, which was I basically just get to try new things and do things that I enjoy. And as long as you do, like, the filming and make it look cool and bring about a little bit of intrigue into it as well, then people will follow you because they love your style and they love your personality, and it just gives you endless opportunities to go and have fun.

Yeah, it's quite amazing. I don't know why people want to watch my videos, really. I'm not too sure. I guess people say they find it relaxing. They find it, like, when I— Yeah, it's very modest. A nice break from their busy work lives or whatever. But I'm really happy that I can make stuff which people find enjoyable. But yeah, I, I wanted to make videos other than fishing, and I decided to branch out into other things. And I was getting interested. I think it's that sort of age. I was like 22, 23, and where you're sort of discovering so many things, you're learning about all these new, like, hobbies and interests. And— hello, bee. I'm just getting distracted by a bee around my face.

That was pretty close, that one.

It was. I can't think whilst there's a bee there. No, I was getting interested in all these new hobbies, and I thought, seeing as I know how to make films, I'd try and make videos of learning these new things. And it turned out that, like, filming yourself learning how to do something is Quite popular. I didn't have to be a pro at it for it to work. It was sort of—

It's a very interesting observation because I think I try and do this as much as possible. Like, I could hide all of my mistakes. Like, I could just be like, this is how to do bees and this is how to keep bees. But it's— I don't know, it might come across a bit as, who's this guy? He thinks he knows everything. Like, I definitely don't know everything. Like, I've got so much to learn in beekeeping. But there's something to be said about just showing what you're doing and being like, well, I'm going to try this, and then you know what, that didn't work, but I'm going to show you that it didn't work. Like, that was a horrendous mess, and then maybe you've not got to kind of make the same mistake again.

Yeah, for sure. I think I always feel like, I mean, no one knows everything, and I definitely know that I don't know everything. And I think it's quite nice to be open to making mistakes. and accepting mistakes. And I like to show that on the videos because, yeah, it sort of— it feels like if you admit that you don't know everything, then you can make mistakes.

Well, it's the natural charm that comes across in your videos, which is you just— because you're quite young. How old are you?

I'm 25 and a half.

25. Pretty young. And I'm 38, for anyone who's interested. But you've got that natural curiosity. It's like you're out there just kind of exploring the world and just trying to find stuff out.

Yeah, well, I think your 20-year-old sort of age, loads of people I talk to, loads of friends and other people my age, they say they feel lost. And that's kind of— I definitely get that. I know exactly why I feel this sense of lostness in this big world, and it's quite scary and so many different options, career paths to go down, and it can be quite confusing to know what to do with your time. But I just realized that, like, I just want to soak it all up, learn as much as possible, keep learning, and things will happen as you learn and lead on to other things.

And it will, won't it? Like, the channel will develop over time, and I like that you've not really got a You know, you've not got an end goal or you've not got a grand plan or you're not going to say, I'm going to really focus in on this niche. You're kind of just like taking it as it comes.

Yeah, I've very much admitted to the fact that I don't have really a clue where it's all going to go. For sure, I have not got a goal really. And people ask me like, oh, what's your plans for next year? I don't have a clue.

What's your plans for next week?

Yeah, exactly. I can barely come up with that. So it's all a bit of an experiment, I'd say. Yeah, making all these YouTube videos is a big experiment, and it's quite, quite amazing that I can just try lots of different things and learn new stuff.

So, so you're a YouTuber, but excuse the poor joke, tell me how you actually nearly became a You Chew Uber.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Sorry, I'll get my Coke.

Wow.

Gosh, gotta take a moment there.

Yeah, you have to work it out. It'll all become clear.

Yeah, so I must have told you about this.

You did.

So I quit my previous job making fishing videos, and at that point I was feeling really lost. I was like, what do I do with my life? And I was trying to think about how I could earn some money again, because I'd obviously quit quit the job. And I was like, I know I can make films, but I've been doing that for so long. Do I really want to keep doing that?

Yeah.

Or do something else? And I realized that something I really enjoyed was driving. Like, I really enjoyed driving, listening to music, and I really also enjoy meeting new people. So I put that together. I was like, I'm gonna become an Uber driver. So I signed up for the Uber driver, like, the You have to become like a registered— you have to get like the license to drive people around, basically. So I signed up for my local city, which was Brighton at the time. I was like, I'm gonna become an Uber driver. At the same time, I was also just like, maybe I'll also upload some YouTube videos as well, see how that goes.

Crossroads. It's like Sliding Doors, the film, innit?

Yeah, and I uploaded a YouTube video at the same time, and then that got like 150,000 views. And then I was like, oh wow, that's cool. Maybe I should just make videos still.

Yeah.

So I diverted from the Uber driver plan. So I've still not become an Uber driver, although I do love driving still, and I love giving my friends lifts. And maybe it will be a career path in the future, but we'll see.

It's so interesting you say that, and I can genuinely testify to this fact that you do love driving, don't you? So when we were Who contacted who to do a video? Surely it was me contacting you.

I mean, I have been watching your videos since I started beekeeping. They have been the source of like all the learning.

Very kind.

Yours, Griff's in— he's also in Wales, he's further south. Yeah, yeah, other side. And yeah, your guys' channels were where I learned to beekeep, but I can't remember who got in touch with who.

But all I do remember is that when I said— when we said we were going to do something together and we suggested maybe like doing some brainstorming, and I said we'll just do like a Zoom call or something, and you came up, didn't you? You said, no, no, no, I'll drive up. And I said, it's quite far. Like, that is a— what is it, a 6-hour drive or something?

I didn't quite realize how far it was going to be. But I will— I love meeting in person. It's way easier and way better to discuss things, I find. Like, over Zoom call, you can never really— it's not the same. You're speaking to a screen. I find it's just nicer to meet up with people in person, and you can get ideas across and understand each other's views on things better. Yeah, and I don't regret driving 6 hours to come and see you anyway.

And 6 hours back. It was a fun brainstorming session as well.

It was good, yeah.

We've got some future plans.

It's great to talk to another person who not only keeps bees but also makes videos. Because obviously when you do the same thing as someone else, you have a lot to talk about and a lot to relate to with things.

Oh, it's so true, you know, because I'm passionate about bees, but I'm really passionate about YouTube. Like, if someone said to me, what's the best thing about beekeeping? I'd say doing the YouTube videos. I really, really do enjoy it. But you've got no one to talk to. Like, I've got no one who's interested in anything like that.

Yeah.

And my wife gets really annoyed She's like, can you stop talking about YouTube? Because it's like, you know, oh, I've got this many subscribers, or this video, I've got an idea for a video, or something like that. But it's—

No, I don't care.

I literally don't care. Stop talking about YouTube. But it's funny in terms of like the reflection on channels and stuff, like my journey, I've been trying to build like a following on YouTube and get people to watch my channel. And like, for me, it's been a very slow journey. And it's never like I've never had a viral video. I've never had anything that's like catapulted the numbers. Like my my biggest video I've had, I think it's got like 400,000 views. But I've just like been slowly building it. And as I said, I've gone through these different strategies of right. I'm going to do as many videos as possible to try and get across as much information as possible. And then I've gone right. I'm going to go shock factor. I'm going to try and do oh you never believe what's in this beehive and keep people watching it. And I still never really got anywhere, you know. I've got something like— we've got 40,000 views now. Nearly stung you. Oh, we need to get to the end of this without Alex getting stung because that's— no, he's good, he's good. Um, but then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I see this Just Alex come up and it's like, who's doing— who's this guy doing beekeeping videos? And I was like, who's this guy getting millions of views out of nowhere on his beekeeping And there could— it's funny because I talked to Griff quite a lot about this— there could be like a natural competition and be like, oh, not on, not on my patch, or not on my turf. But I'm so the complete opposite of that, which is like, oh, awesome. Like, I have a lot of people come to me, so it's easy for you because, you know, you got in when there weren't that many people doing YouTube videos. And I think, well, yeah, but that was the same for me. Like, when I started doing YouTube, there were, there were people like, I don't know, like, um, the Dirt Rooster, who's got 150,000. Like, he's been doing it for 10 years before, and you just proved that it doesn't matter. Like, if you produce good videos, you can create a channel out of nowhere.

I think, I think if you're doing— what I always think is if you are doing something which is unique, something different, then you have no competition. Yeah, like if you do things your own Everyone is so different. If everyone sticks to themselves and presents in their own way and films in their own way, then you've got no competition because you're very different from everyone else.

And it's true. And I kind of sit down— like, I am a naturally competitive person, but I sat down and thought, well, how can I learn from Alex? Like, he's doing something here that's generating like hundreds of thousands and millions of views in the niche that I'm in. And I can't create that. And then I kind of thought, well, we're not really doing the same thing, are we? We're kind of—

Absolutely different.

Yeah.

My videos are completely different from— you can't compare.

No.

They're 2 very different end products.

Yeah, I— the best way I think to describe Alex's videos, and this is kind of how I use them as well, it's like 6 or 7 o'clock Sunday evening viewing. You know, you've had your roast dinner, you're kind of not looking forward to the working week, and you just want a bit of kind of, right, I'm gonna have a bit of me time, I'm gonna have a relax, I'm gonna— oh, okay, watch a bit of Just Alex, right? And you're like, ah. You make that sound a lot when you watch the videos, 'cause they're like feel-good videos and nice, and you can learn stuff, and they're calming and relaxing. Whereas like maybe my videos, people wanna, well, how do I split a beehive without the bees swarming?

Your videos are where you go to learn.

Yeah.

And you do an incredibly good job of that.

Thanks very much.

Because that is the go-to place that, like, if I want to— I have a playlist on my YouTube thing, which, like, a private playlist, which is like beekeeping, how-to beekeeping stuff.

Okay.

I've got loads of your videos in there because it's like I go back to them. It's like a book with a bookmark. You go back to that, how am I meant to do a split again?

Yeah.

You go back and you get the confidence and the They're learning from someone who's been doing it a long time, and yeah, there's real value to that.

And I think it's— and you'll do the same with yours, but it's about refining your own style, isn't it? So I came up with the, you know, the catchphrase No Nonsense Beekeeping 3 or 4 years ago, and I remember looking at some of the videos that are supposedly no-nonsense beekeeping that were half an hour long on how to requeen a beehive, and I thought, well, there's quite a lot of nonsense in there. So I'm almost like redoing videos at the moment and trying to keep it just like laser-focused and making sure that there's just no ums, there's no ahs, and it's just condense it down. Because people want to come and they want to know how to requeen a beehive, and they don't want 20 minutes of that. If you can do it in 2 minutes and do the job, do it in 2 minutes and do the job. So that's my— but then that wouldn't work for you, would it? There's no point filming all nice things and bees and then just cutting it all out and doing 2 minutes.

Yeah, I guess we're trying to make very different Videos.

Yeah, but we've come together to provide Alex with a nuc, so I just thought we'd have a chat in front of this beehive. Have we not been stung again this morning?

I'm surprised actually. I did have one in my hair.

Yeah, a couple of close calls.

Luckily didn't get me.

Right, should we finish off these videos then and then send you on your way?

Absolutely. Thanks for today. It's been great.

No worries, I really enjoyed it. So we spent a really long day filming with Alex there, trying to kind of get to understand how his YouTube channel has grown and what his plans are for the future, and just what makes his channel so incredibly watchable. He's taken away 3 F1 Buckfast queens, he's taken away a nuc of beautifully calm bees, and I can't wait to see what he does with the videos.