BEE KEEPER
‘I put the cage into the hive so the bees can smell the pheromones and get used to the queen – this takes just a few hours. I then take the plug of candy out and she goes into the hive’.
Bees are quite intelligent, Paul
believes. ‘Bees navigate by the sun,’ he said. ‘Forager bees perform a ‘waggle dance’ to indicate to the other bees the direction and distance to flowers yielding nectar and pollen’. Paul uses a smoker to quieten his
bees. He said: ‘Their natural reaction to smoke is as if something is invading their home. They fill their tummies with honey from the combs, ready to fly off because they think the hive is on fire. When this happens their bodies elongate which means they have less ability to curve them and sting you, as their stings are at the bottom of their tails. ‘I can then remove the top of the
hive to see if the queen is healthy and if the egg laying pattern is even’.
Paul tends to his beehives about once a month from October to February, checking to make sure they haven’t blown over and that the mesh he has fixed to the bottom of the hives has prevented mice and other predators from entering. Every February he ‘hefts’ the hive, or in other words lifts it to feel the weight. ‘If it’s not heavy it means there isn’t enough honey for the bees to eat so I then make up some sugar water to feed them artificially so they don’t die’. From February onwards Paul checks his bees once a week to see how much honey they are making. Last summer was a poor year for honey production, he said. ‘I only collected about 18lbs of honey from the hives last year.
It’s the dampness
more than anything else because it rots the wax but also if there’s no sunshine the flowers don’t come out and the bees haven’t got anywhere to go to collect pollen and nectar’.
Paul sells his honey at Smith Street
Deli, but of course always keeps a few jars back for his own consump- tion. ‘Honey is very good for you,’ he said. ‘It is full of nutrients, trace elements and vitamins. You only need a teaspoon or so a day to reap the benefits’.
Despite the “ignominy” of being
stung, Paul advocates beekeeping as a hobby that benefits not only one’s wellbeing but also the environment, and recommends anyone thinking of starting up their own beehives to take a day’s beekeeping course at somewhere like Buckfast Abbey. ‘It’s a really good course and gives
you some practical experience. The most intimidating thing I can recall when I started was opening the top of a hive during a course at Darting- ton and seeing all the bees fly out’. For more information about
beekeeping visit
www.bbka.org.uk/local/ totnes-kingsbridge or
www.buckfast.org.uk.• By Ginny Ware
ByTheDart150x105mm.indd 1
19/04/2013 16:05
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