We have a wild beehive in our garden. It provides a home and we don’t take their honey. Bees have evolved to take care of themselves over thousands of years. When humans realised the potential and health promoting value of their honey, they began to take it. Beekeeping now involves taking honey on a truly industrial scale and I would not want to you see videos of that! It is my belief that one reason why bees are in decline is the over theft of their honey. We know that honey has antibacterial properties, which is one reason we take it! But the bees need their precious resource to fend off disease and to keep them healthy through the winter. Beekeepers replace their honey with a sugar solution, thus lowering their immune system. Beekeepers say ‘We leave them with enough’. But how do we know? The bees know….
So, if you are still with me…. Provide a space and they will come…
We don’t open or enter their hive. We have had the bees for 4 years now. Because we live in a very exposed place, we do cover the hive over the worst of the winter. But mostly that isn’t necessary. And we do one small job twice a year, ie we change the aperture from open to almost closed, to prevent frost getting into the hive. On a warmish winter day the bees will want to come out, and then we reverse it in the summer We are still learning.
Bees ‘swarm’, ie they reproduce in May ( April in the south ). Usually this is a predictable day if you keep your eye on the weather. I can now feel when they are likely to swarm. They have made another queen and she leaves with her swarm to find a new home. So I warn friendly would- be wild beekeepers to be on standby and we collect the swarm in a box. The box is then taken to someone’s new hive, which they enter readily. Of course if you miss them swarming, they will find their own new home: one swarm made it to a village post box and is still their 3 years on! The villagers have adopted them! If not, they may not survive in our concrete jungle.
So, I can offer a visit here, helpful websites, talk on the phone and/or a presentation to a group. I don’t know much, but I know enough to know our bees are capable of looking after themselves. I’m not a vegan, I eat meat, so no moralising from me. I just love bees and I wonder if how we are ‘keeping ‘ them is contributing to their demise.
Maggie Pollard