Mind the Bees’ Wax

Mr Pod - Beekeeper Sheriff

Today we went off to learn a bit about our friends the bees.

When I was a littl’ one I remember seeing old black and white photos of my great-grandpa in a bee hat, with a pipe, rolled up sleeves, in his big garden, in front of his beehive. I never met my great grandpa. But I would have loved to have, and to have learned all about bees from him.

Fast forward 25 years, I am still dreaming of bees.

This is where is started: Mr Pod and I were imagining all the different things we could do in our perfect wood, one day, and we decided that honey bees are definitely “on the menu”.

Honey bees have had a lot of press lately. Mainly because, throughout the world, honey bees are disappearing. And nobody knows why or where. It’s as if the world has become a bit of a Bee Bermuda Triangle. The apiary world calls it “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD). Just as with the Bermuda Triangle, there are many theories about the causes of CCD. Some blame the worldwide spread of the varroa mite, which lives on a bee’s back, weakening it and eventually wiping out an entire colony. Others blame changes in the climate, pesticides or pollution, and even mobile phones.

Whatever the cause, there is no doubt that if bee colonies continue to disappear, and we fail to find out why, within 10 years there may not be any honey bees left in the world.

So that’s just one reason to keep bees; to help save the bees. Of course there are plenty of other reasons: imagine watching a bee hive at work, and having your own source of honey.

And if you go along to the London Association of Beekeeper’s Taste of Beekeeping course, like we did today, and ask one of the passionate apiarists there why it’s a good idea to keep honey bees, you will walk away wondering why you took so long to learn that there is nothing as exciting in the world as keeping bees.

We learned a lot today. We learned that a bee hive normally contains as many as 50,000 bees, we learned all about the bees’ waggle dance, we learned that bee suits are actually far more comfortable than they look, that bee keepers are lovely, bee-passionate eccentrics (who like a pint or two), that unlike their keepers bee really dislike alcohol (its all about the scent), that is is not as scary as you would imagine to be surrounded by thousands of swarming bees, and most importantly, we learned that London is a perfect place to keep a hive of bees.

In fact, we learned that London honey almost always wins the best honey in Britain taste test, that you can keep a bee hive just about anywhere (on the balcony, on the roof, in a shed). If you don’t believe me, have a look at the honey being sold by Fortum & Mason – £10 a jar of honey from bees in bee hives sitting on the roof of Fortum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly, no less.

So hurray, because we don’t have to wait to find our perfect wood before we can have perfect honey! In fact if we wanted to we could set up a bee hive in our little backyard as quickly as, well, tomorrow!

We won’t though, because there is quite a bit to learn yet, still, imagine it, our own bees and our own honey. How fantabulous.