Give bees a chance
As Unesco calls for more female beekeepers, Catherine Lofthouse makes a beeline for the hives to see if she has what it takes
As I approached the hive, I felt a heady mix of anticipation and some trepidation. It was absolutely swarming with bees.
Although I was clad head to toe in a beekeeping suit, as I reached out to hold the bee-laden wooden frame I wondered if I had made a mistake.
We’d been told what to do should a bee somehow end up inside our suit, but I was hoping I wouldn’t find out what that would be like.
I needn’t have worried. Undisturbed by my presence, the bees wriggled, buzzed and moved around. I watched, mesmerised. Soon I felt completely calm.
Bees are having a moment right now. And for very good reason.
Key pollinators, without them scientists warn that the food chain would be severely affected, from the plants they regenerate to the animals that eat those plants, and so on.
There’s such a buzz about these planet-saving bugs that actress Jane Horrocks and comedian
Rob Beckett have both launched podcasts about them.
The British Beekeepers Association estimates that a quarter of its 28,486 members are female.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Unesco’s Women for Bees programme hopes to train more women worldwide as beekeeper-entrepreneurs and protectors of insect habitats.
The Unesco scheme is backed by film star Angelina Jolie, who recently posed for a portrait with bees settling on her face.
It’s a striking image, although not one I – fully suited and booted in heavy cotton and white mesh veil – wish to recreate.
I’m at a beekeeping taster session near Leicester, run by the Leicestershire and
Rutland Beekeepers Association.
The two counties have more than their fair share of master beekeepers and
Leicester has just announced it will be installing bus stops with living roofs of wildflowers and sedum around the city to provide an urban habitat for insects.
Our session started by getting properly attired in bee-friendly kit.
Stepping into our suits, we pulled the attached mesh hoods over our heads and tucked the sleeves inside our heavy-duty gloves. We made sure any zips and velcro were fully done up to stop insects getting inside.
It felt heavy and more than a little hot, so I was glad it was a cool grey drizzly day. As we headed for the hives our hosts Paul, Jay, Mike and Nigel talked us through the smokers, hive tools and torch that would mean we could get a good look at the larvae being tended by the worker bees in the brood boxes.
They showed us how, after loosening the propolis – a resin-like material used by the bees to seal holes or cracks – each frame could be carefully removed to see if we could spot the queen.
In the height of summer, each hive might house up to 60,000 bees, with one queen, thousands of female worker bees and hundreds of male drones. That drops to fewer than 10,000 bees over the winter.
We took it in turns to hold the frames crawling with bees. It was fascinating, I’d never been so close to so many bees before. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
“Can you see the new queen?” our hosts asked. I peered into the frame, scanning.
The queen bee is wider and longer than the rest of the colony, having been fed royal jelly at larvae stage. Excited, we watched as the beekeepers marked her with a little splodge of paint to help her to stand out from the crowd.
She didn’t seem to mind having her make-up done, and her workers seemed intrigued by the new marking on her back.
Then it was time to leave the bees in peace. On the way out of the apiary, we gave each other a thorough check and brush down to make sure our suits weren’t carrying any bee escapees in the folds of material.
And once back inside the hut, we settled down with tea and biscuits.
Could this be my new hobby, I asked myself, buzzing from the excitement of spending time with the bees. Realistically, probably not.
It’s not a hobby to take on lightly, explained the experts. Building a hive can cost hundreds of pounds, as can protective clothing, before bees are even introduced. They pointed out that you’ll need twice as much equipment and three times more space than you might think at first. Good hive and swarm management is a must, to prevent the bees bothering your neighbours.
Once bees swarm, the new colony will nest in whatever space it deems suitable unless a new hive is provided. To prove that point, we were shown part of a car engine, full of a colony of bees, that had been relocated to the apiary having been discovered by a nearby business.
Honeybees have a voracious appetite and having too many hives with a limited amount of forage nearby could cause issues for other pollinating insects competing for the same food. I was amused to learn that bees become “hangry” when the rape seed crop loses its bright yellow flowers in early summer.
And while the bees we visited seemed docile, that’s not always the case. We heard how farmers in Africa can use bee hives to protect their crops from marauding elephants, which get chased away by the angry colony if the hives get knocked. The enormous creatures do not like being stung any more than we do.
But while I may not become a beekeeper any time soon, I was encouraged to know there are plenty of ways we can be more bee friendly in our lives, from planting bee-friendly plants to buying locally-produced honey. You can even lend your garden to a budding beekeeper and their own hive.
As I left the apiary, I did so with a newfound knowledge and respect for bees.
These small and mighty creatures are the backbone of the ecosystem and we must do everything we can to keep them going strong.
I’m certainly going to look at my own garden and how to make it the bee’s knees.
The keepers put paint on the queen, she didn’t mind having make-up done