Honey and Beekeeping Weekend at Manor Farm Country Park

Visitors to Manor Farm last weekend, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 September, were able to learn all about the life of the honey bee thanks to a series of displays and demonstrations put on by members of the Fareham and District Beekeepers Association (FDBKA).

A virtual beehive containing photos illustrating the different stages of life in the hive plus observation hives enabled visitors to get up close – although not too close – to see bees in action and even pick out each colony’s Queen Bee.

Michael Alsop brought along a video showing the colony of bees in his natural hive. Missing the frames and supports found in a conventional hive, Michael explained that a natural hive “is all about the bees doing everything for themselves.

“You don’t get as much honey using a natural hive,” he added, “but getting at the honeycomb is easier.”

Steve Pestell (photo 2) spent the two days demonstrating how to make a ‘skep’, a type of hive in use until the early 20th century in some rural places but superseded in design as to get at the honey the bees had to be killed. Skeps are used nowadays to collect swarms.

During the weekend children tried their hand at rolling beeswax candles – which not only produce a lovely scent, but are pure burning and have a longer burning time. You can find beeswax candles at farmers markets and via the Internet, for example through Beesence and Brighter Blessings.

Activities for adults included honey and mead tasting. I tried three types of honey – one from the bees in the hives at Manor Farm which belong to the FDBKA and are used for training purposes – and can report that they all lived up to the Greeks’ claim of honey being the food of the gods.

And as for the mead – it was ... heavenly.

Melvyn Asplett, who has been making mead for 20 years and was recently awarded second place at the Alresford Show, had come along to encourage more beekeepers to produce the wine.

“It’s a very simple process,” he said, “The most important thing you need is patience because once you’ve boiled up the honey with some water and added yeast nutrient and yeast to make the alcohol, grape tannin and citric acid (either orange or lemon) you then have to leave it alone for two years to mature.”

According to committee member John Hoar, “Most of the FDBKA members keep bees as a hobby and have one to three colonies or hives, but we do also have the more serious beekeepers who have  between 30 and 50 colonies.“

Ray Cleal has been keeping bees for two years, having started because, “It was my birthday and I thought I have a garden and what else does the garden need? And I decided it needed a beehive, which my wife bought me. I now have two apiaries [an apiary is a collection of beehives] with five in each.”

Bees can fly up to three miles to forage for food, but many beekeepers, particularly the more serious, move their hives at different times of the year to where food is more plentiful.

John Hoar said, “Many companies allow beekeepers to site hives on spare land. It’s doing something positive for the environment and good for their corporate image.” 

Paul Summersgill has just transported some of his hives to the New Forest to take advantage of the heather in flower.

He explained that bees begin feeding on snowdrops at the beginning of the year and move on to daffodils, with ivy the final item on the year’s menu. There was some disagreement over the merits of the taste of ivy honey, and although most pronounced it bitter (one beekeeper even saying it tasted like medicine), some professed to liking it.

The Manor Farm weekend was not only an opportunity for the Fareham and District Beekeepers Association to promote the craft of beekeeping but also to show how the general public can help the bee population.

Bees form an essential part of the food-chain – worth £200m to the British economy alone – and are responsible for pollinating crops ranging from fruit and vegetables to nuts and cotton, but in the last four years billions of colonies have disappeared worldwide.

The good news is, however, that publicity about the falling numbers has resulted in an upsurge in interest in beekeeping.

Ray Cleal. FDBKA membership secretary confirmed that membership has doubled within the last year from 26 to 55, and at the end of last year MP for Eastleigh Chris Huhne commented on Hampshire Beekeepers’ Association reporting 250 new members registering during the year: “Bees are an essential part of the ecological system that enable us to survive. Without their efforts in pollinating plants, our agricultural and horticultural economy would collapse.

"It is marvellous news that Hampshire's beekeepers are in the throes of a great revival as people realise what is at stake and want to help.”

If you want to do something to help the bees you could consider adopting a hive through the British Beekeepers' Association or simply make your garden a more bee-friendly place by growing bee-magnet flowers such as hollyhocks and sunflowers, or fruit bushes.

And if you’re interested in becoming a beekeeper the British Beekeepers' Association website is a great place to start as it has lots of advice for beginners.

As for keeping bees and getting stung...

Paul Summersgill put it this way: “If you’re going to be a beekeeper you are going to get stung. Partly it’s because beekeepers get blasé and don’t always wear the proper protective clothing.

“Plus if you wear the gauntlet gloves you tend to end up killing the bees. I always wear a hat and veil, though, and usually the suit as well.

“The first sting of the season hurts, but you get used to it after that.”

For John Hoar, “Getting stung is the exception not the rule. I haven’t been stung once this year.”

Bob Ord (photo 3) who began beekeeping in July, seemed to sum up the feelings of all the beekeepers at Manor Farm this weekend when he said, “It’s a brilliant pastime."

Bob went on, “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and now I can. It’s so satisfying, everybody should do it.

“Looking after bees is a real buzz.”

Photo ‘Honey Bee on Winter Aconite’ from Flickr by  Tie Guy II