Being brought up in Africa a childhood interest in bees was discouraged, however soon after returning to Ireland I begun keeping bees in 1975. In the early days I also imported and made some equipment for sale and then set up manufacturing foundation. It was with a full scale mill but lacked automated feed and sheet sizing so when the relative cost of foundation decreased this operation was no longer viable so ceased. After 18 years beekeeping, embarked on the Irish exam trail and then went  on to get an NDB.  In later years with an agency for E. H. Thorne I am committed to being a full time appliance dealer while still keeping  a smaller number of colonies than before.