Dave Cushman lived in Leicestershire and was a very knowledgeable man with a wide variety of interests. He was very practical and could turn his hand to most things. In the latter years of his life he was severely handicapped and was unable to work or remain an active beekeeper. There was no lazing about and moaning with Dave, he simply set about learning html code and built several individual websites that reflected his interests. Most of these can be accessed from here, but the largest was this beekeeping website. It has grown to such an extent, it has long been regarded as the world's most comprehensive and authoritative beekeeping website, where it is accessed by anyone with an interest in bees, from non-beekeepers to researchers. It doesn't matter where I go, most beekeepers have used "Dave Cushman's website" and I'm often told they have found information they couldn't find elsewhere.

Although Dave had an interest in all sub species of honey bees Apis mellifera, his main passion was the native bee Apis mellifera mellifera and the improvement of them. This interest is reflected in the content of this website. The buttons on the left will lead you to some of the articles or pages written by Dave that appeared elsewhere. He had a very fertile mind and, as with all good beekeepers, was not frightened to challenge some conventional thinking. His enquiring mind often led him to different conclusions, but these were based on experiment or experience, not by simply repeating what others had said or written. Sadly, this drew criticism from a small minority, who, I believe probably saw him as a threat to their narrow minded thinking that has been acquired by reading books, not getting their heads stuck into countless beehives and learning from the real experts.

Dave Cushman's contribution to worldwide beekeeping through this website has been enormous. Much of the main content was written by Dave and this can be recognised by the retention of his original fonts.

For the 2014 "Dave Cushman Memorial Lecture"at Gormanston, I was invited to give the lecture. I chose "Dave Cushman - A Man and His Website". I have added this to my lecture list.

Roger Patterson.

Page created 14/12/2014

Page updated 17/11/2020