IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE HONEY

The art of beekeeping, referred to as ‘apiculture’, dates back some 9000 years and is thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt. The discipline, which is now a popular hobby, combines exotics keeping with horticulture and general outdoor pursuits. As well as delicious honey, beekeepers play an important role in supporting the UK’s pollinators as they combine a love of invertebrates with sincere conservation interests. In recent years, beekeeping has seen a boom in the UK. No longer confined to rural landscapes, beekeeping is happening across the UK from urban areas to vast woodlands. As a fringe hobby that draws many parallels with herpetoculture, Exotics Keeper Magazine has spoken to members of the British Beekeepers Association to find out what’s creating such a buzz.

Why keep bees?

Beekeeping is a unique profession. Whilst there are certain parallels with exotics keeping, horticultural knowledge and a general love for the outdoors are also required to succeed. Beekeeping demands keepers to tend to their hive/s at least once a week throughout at least half of the year. Aside from the obvious benefits of honey, people keep bees for a variety of reasons. Stephen Barnes, Chair of the BBKA Board of Trustees and has been beekeeping since 1997. He told Exotics Keeper Magazine: “My father kept bees for about 30 years and at the time, I wasn’t interested. When he died, I took over. I was only going to keep 2 hives as something to do and now I’ve got 38 and I’m not sure what went wrong!”

“All sorts of people do beekeeping. I see it as a way of keeping in touch with nature. You notice the seasons, you notice the weather, you become more aware of what is growing around you because you’re aware of what the bees are foraging on. Some keen entomologists keep bees too. Some people keep bees because they think it’s saving the species, or they just love keeping bees. There are also people that keep bees as a bit of supplementary income in retirement.”

Many enthusiasts we spoke to had a similar story to tell. After having their interest piqued by a friend or relative, the support of the British Beekeepers Association helped transition the hobby into a passion. The organisation has created several courses and exams to aid a budding hobbyist to become a ‘master beekeeper’.

What goes into keeping bees?

Beekeepers must devote a good amount of time to their hobby. Although it may be less restrictive than say, handspraying a poison frog enclosure every day, or preparing fresh greens for a bearded dragon each morning, a beekeeper is expected to work every week (usually at an offsite location), to maintain the hive. Stephen continued: “The ‘season’ starts around mid-March to the end of September. It does depend on which region of the country you’re in and which crops are being grown there. Some keepers will tell you the season finishes in August, but a bit further North we start later and finish later. The winter period is spent setting up equipment ready for the next season. It is possible to whittle it down to about one day of work a week, for 52 weeks of the year depending on how many colonies you’ve got. For me, I would spend around 2-3 days a week during the season on bees and in the winter, 1-2 days but not every week.”

“Our main job is to make sure that the bees have plenty to sustain themselves. We make sure they’re healthy and not suffering from a disease. Responsible keepers also try to make sure their colonies do not swarm as this can be a nuisance to the local community. In the summer they produce new queens, and each queen has the ability to start a new colony, so the keeper needs to manage that. I find a swarm to be a mystical experience, but it can be terrifying if you don’t understand what a swarm is.”

As well as maintaining their own hives, members of the British Beekeepers Association also work hard to drive conservation efforts and spread the good word about bees. As vital pollinators, even the introduced or mixed-species honeybees that are maintained by beekeepers must be protected to preserve our wild spaces. The British Beekeepers Association has around 28,000 members with an expected 10,000 more people keeping bees up and down the country. “What we do as an association is encouraging people to plant bee-friendly forage” added Stephen. “The biggest problem that pollinators face is the lack of diverse forage. Wildflowers, trees, hedgerows, hay meadows, all of these things have been slowly taken out of agriculture and this has had a huge impact on insects in general. I remember if you went out on a drive on a Sunday afternoon, when you got back, you’d have to clean the window screen because it was splattered with insect kill. That just doesn’t happen these days and that’s because population numbers have declined so much because of the lack of forage.”

“There is a concern that the honeybee competes with other bee species for forage supplies. There is some overlap, but very often the other species are foraging on particular nectar and pollen sources, whereas the honeybee is a bit more ubiquitous. The honeybee is the only species that is feasible for a hobbyist to keep or manage. You can provide habitat for other bee species, but they can’t be ‘managed’ so to speak. Some bumblebees are used for commercial pollination, but they are generally imported and survive one season and must be imported again the next year.”

Responsible beekeeping also requires some of the same practices as herpetoculture. A strict biosecurity process is needed to ensure the health of all colonies and to prevent the spread of potentially harmful diseases. For many keepers, this is managed by using separate gloves and equipment for each hive. For keepers with multiple colonies, each hive is categorised into a separate group and different equipment is used for each block of hives. There are certain areas in the UK where bee diseases are much more common. “The two main notifiable diseases are American foulbrood and European foulbrood” added Stephen. “You do get outbreaks of both from time to time. As far as I’m aware they are only a threat to the honeybee so it wouldn’t affect native insects. Where I am we don’t have any serious disease issues, but in other parts of the country you might dip your wellingtons or dip your tools in F10 between sites or even hives.”

Beekeeping and conservation

The British Beekeepers Association opposes the importation of non-native honeybees to the UK and instead encourages members to produce their own queens. The Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association takes this one step further, with a greater focus on genetics, arguing that non-native honeybees could potentially compete with native species (though the scientific backing for this argument is currently limited). Broadly speaking, one of BIBBA’s primary goals is to encourage keepers to breed as many native European dark honeybees (Apis mellifera mellifera) as possible, to help support a species in decline. The organisation writes: “It is fairly certain that the dark european honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, has been native to mainland Britain since before the closing of the channel land bridge when sea levels rose following the last Ice Age. They became isolated and adapted to the different conditions they found themselves in.”

“A. m. mellifera is native to the whole of Northern Europe, north of the Alps from the Atlantic to the Urals, where they evolved in isolation, having been cut off by such natural barriers as mountains, water and ice. With many of the “pure” stocks of all subspecies worldwide, there has been a certain amount of intro-aggression due to bees being introduced into parts where they are not native. Even though their numbers are quite low compared to former times there is still a lot of genetic material left. It is my belief we should be selecting for characteristics in bees that will help them survive, rather than use types that are unsuited and were very much tougher and didn’t need so much feeding, insulation or dowsing with “supplements”.

In much the same way that many specialist amphibian breeders put great value on genetics, specialist beekeepers believe that having a genetically sound population of endangered animals may support conservation efforts. Unlike amphibian keepers who are currently contending with Chytrid amongst other conservation barriers that prevent the release of captive animals, beekeepers working with the Dark European honeybee are already directly supporting the wider ecosystem.

The honey pot

Although commercial-scale beekeeping can be a profitable business, 90% of beekeepers use their hobby to pay off their overheads. “There are commercial beekeepers who make a good living out of it. For myself, I break even” added Stephen. “My hobby pays for itself, but if I cost my time, I would make a loss. I keep bees because I’m besotted by them. They’re almost my entire life as my wife will tell you. Any honey that I produce and sell is just paying for me to be besotted with my bees. There are three keepers that have over 1000 colonies, but they are the exception. The average number is two or three colonies. There are also a number of bee farmers that have 200300 colonies. After this, you absolutely need to employ somebody to work for you and to do that you would need 1000 colonies to afford it. Some people claim to make good money out of it, but they don’t always consider the