Why there’s a real buzz about beekeeping
It helps the environment, boosts mental health and the end result is pretty sweet. So no wonder it’s having a renaissance...
WHAT do the following very different famous people have in common? Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Michelle Obama and Pope Francis. Answer: They have all gone barmy for beekeeping. DiCaprio took up the hobby to relieve stress when he was in line for an Academy Award for The Revenant in 2016. “Leo gave it a go and loved it,” a friend said. “He has even built a few hives for his garden. Beekeeping helped take his mind off all the awards chat and kept him chilled out.” Even sweeter than the honey, he won that Oscar.
Johansson was given her first hive as a wedding present by fellow Avengers star Samuel L Jackson and now uses her own honey as part of her organic beauty regime.
Freeman turned his 126-acre Mississippi farm into a bee haven where the actor does not wear any anti-sting clothing because he wants to be “at one” with his creatures.
Obama established the so-called “First Hive” in her organic garden at the White House, where the resident chef often used her honey in his recipes.
And the Pope has several hives at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, where the bees help pollinate 800-year-old olive trees.
But these are just the celebrity trendsetters. Thousands more of us are now relishing the therapeutic effect of keeping bees. Driven by an increasing awareness of the crucial role the insects play in maintaining our ecosystem, the hobby’s popularity has suddenly taken off.
It’s a huge phenomenon on Instagram, and for a while beehives were the most ordered wedding present at John Lewis.
In addition, Radio 2 breakfast show host Zoe Ball organised a campaign this summer called Big Bee Challenge, inviting children to design a beefriendly garden.
The growing buzz of popularity surrounding bees is underlined by Show Me The Honey! – a new children’s beekeeping TV show that goes out every Thursday on CBBC and is also on BBC iPlayer.
There have already been programmes about spelling bees and sewing bees, but this is the first beekeeping challenge on British TV. Fronted by Baftawinning presenter and bee enthusiast Maddie Moate and expert apiarist Curtis Thompson, the seven-part series tracks four families as they compete to be crowned “Beekeeper of the Year” by producing the best honey. Judges on the show include chef Ainsley Harriott, who will cook a celebratory dish with the winner’s honey.
The show follows the many trials and tribulations of beekeeping – from the initial delight of receiving the hive, bees and suits, through the difficulties of running a successful hive, to the very demanding final harvest. It is an engrossing process, loaded with jeopardy. Months of love and affection culminate in that one crunch moment: have the bees actually managed to come up with any honey? Curtis, who 10 years ago relinquished a very well-paid job in banking to become a professional beekeeper, reflects on why the pastime has become as popular as baking banana bread in the pandemic.
“During lockdown, people realised there is more to life than just 9-to-5 and worrying, ‘How much money do I have in my account and can I buy that latest car?’ It forced people to look more within and think about what it is that they really enjoy in life. ‘What do I like doing? I like being outside around greenery and working in that environment. Let’s try beekeeping.’”
Maddie chips in: “In lockdown, we all had a lot more time and space to think about things. It created a pause for people and gave us time to think about going back to the land and getting more in touch with nature.
“People were looking at how to get outside and give something back. We weren’t able to travel further afield, so we were focusing our efforts closer to home.We were suddenly very aware of our own back gardens and wanted to make the most of them.
“Also, we all increasingly realise that we need to look after the environment for the sake of the planet, and bees are a very good way into that.”
She is right about the environmental importance of bees. Eighty per cent of all British flowers and a third of what we eat is pollinated by bees and it is estimated that our farmers would have to pay an astonishing £1.8billion per year to manually pollinate their crops.
A killer combination of pesticides, climate change and the loss of flower-rich habitats has helped to wipe out a third of Britain’s native bee population over the past 10 years,
‘Scarlett Johansson uses the honey from her own hives as part of her organic beauty regime’
‘Your 1,001st sting doesn’t hurt as much as your first. Like anything else, you become used to it’
and 35 UK bee species are currently threatened with extinction.
But it’s not just the environmental benefits, says Maddie. Caring for hives can be very beneficial to our mental health, too.
“There is something about beekeeping that forces you to be very present,” she says.
“It’s a very mindful hobby. I find it very easy to be distracted in everyday life by screens or social media or feeling guilty that I should be doing something else. When you’re beekeeping, you can’t be attached to a screen. It encourages you to really pay attention to what’s happening in front of you and forget about everything else.
“People think of bees as buzzing around a lot but, believe it or not, looking inside a hive can be a very calming thing to do. It’s very restorative to be able to lose yourself in the microworld of insects.”
No wonder humans have kept bees for 9,000 years.
Curtis, who followed in the footsteps of his uncle, a master beekeeper who cared for hives at the Hackney Nature Reserve in east London, underscores the relaxing qualities of the pastime. “When I was an investment banker, I would always go down to my uncle’s hives on a Sunday afternoon with a flask and help him attend to the bees. If we were lucky, we would leave with a container full of honey and honeycomb. It was a magical experience and used to de-stress me and make me forget about my very busy job. It took the pressure away. Words can’t do justice to that feeling.” The beekeeper, who has also appeared on The Farmers’ Country Showdown and Food Unwrapped, adds: “While you’re working with bees, you’re at one with the hive and reading the hive and can’t worry about anything else. Everything else goes out of the window. It’s a beautiful place to be.” Curtis, who runs Local Honey Man, which has more than 200 hives and is London’s biggest producer of raw honey, continues: “Beekeeping reconnects you with nature and makes you understand you’re part of a larger chain of events on Planet Earth.” Maddie, who also presents Let’s Go Live!, Do You Know? and Wild Academy, thinks we could learn a lot from bees. “They are constantly cleaning the hive, guarding it, sealing it to protect it from the elements, keeping pests at bay and flying off to find nectar and turning it into honey. All the time, they’re communicating messages through their pheromones. If you smell lemongrass in a hive, for instance, that is the bees telling each other, ‘Everything is OK here.’
“They’re very cool and very brave.Worker bees grow up in the hive, and then go out in the world, having seen nothing but dark space. Immediately they can fly five miles to find nectar.That’s pretty impressive.”
IT IS estimated that a very strong colony – that’s around 60,000 bees – will fly a distance equivalent to the Earth to the Moon every single day. Another fascinating fact, says Maddie, is that: “The workers are all female. The drones are all male, and their only job is to mate with queens from other hives. They don’t do anything else. They don’t forage or clean or sting. I don’t want to say that reflects human life, but I do enjoy the Girl Power story behind the life of bees!”
All the same, there is a slightly unnerving side to beekeeping. Curtis, who describes himself as a “bee-ntrepreneur”, says: “It is scary now and again. I have been stung quite a few times – but it goes hand-inhand with the pastime, and it doesn’t hurt as much now. Your 1,001st sting doesn’t hurt as much as your first. Like anything else in life, you become used to it.”
Maddie appears to have been much luckier. “I’ve never been stung, which is not normal. Funnily enough, though, just as I was uttering the words, ‘Welcome to the grand finale of Show Me The Honey!’, I was stung by a wasp!”
Finally, what does Curtis hope that viewers will take away from Show Me The Honey!
“I’m lucky enough to be able to say that beekeeping has been my full-time job for 10 years. I am paid for my passion of looking after bees and producing honey. I hope audiences will see the enjoyment beekeeping can give you and think, ‘I’d like to give that a go.’ In the end, they will also have the bonus of a lovely jar of honey.”
Curtis wraps up by asking me: “Have I sold beekeeping to you yet?”
“Yes,” I reply. “I’m thinking of setting up a hive in the back garden straight after this interview.”
“Then my work here is done!”
●●Show Me The Honey! is on CBBC at 5.30pm on Thursdays and on BBC iPlayer