Bromley Beekeepers' Association

Julie and Andrew inspecting the hive and preparing them for Winter.

In the face of the credit crunch, bees are one of the best possible antidotes for stress.  It is easy to understand why peace loving monks have been drawn to beekeeping for many centuries.    As we all count the pennies, the self sufficiency of beekeeping also seems very topical. It was the bees gathering pollen from the flowers in our garden which finally gave us the inspiration to go for it and get a hive.

Bees have been a central part of human experience for centuries and expressions such as “a hive of activity”, “what a busy bee” and “as sweet as honey” have been used for so long that we have almost forgotten where they came from.  The arrival of a bee hive in our garden has prompted childhood memories from visiting friends and families.  Like keeping chickens, it turns out that more people have experiences of bees than you would guess. Mind you, everyone has their own theories as to the right and wrong way of keeping bees!

Book recommendations have been thrown at us from all sides and at one point I did feel I was drowning in written and verbal advice.  But at its heart beekeeping is not that complicated or time consuming.  I liked a story of someone who became a “beekeeper” by default, when he shovelled a neighbour’s swarm into a shoe box.  This is not to deride academic studies and bee experts, but they can be off-putting for the curious would be beekeeper.  You should probably go on a course before getting a hive, but if men don’t like reading instruction manuals then I am a typical man!  We have been lucky enough to have a teacher who has kept a hive in our garden, so we have been able to watch and learn from him.  You learn through the seasons and as situations crop up.

Beekeeping must have helped the monks develop their patience.  I’d merrily assumed that we would be eating our own honey within weeks, if not months!  But although our bees have made lots of honey this summer, this is to sustain them through the winter rather than us!  Watching them has been much better entertainment than most that the TV has had to offer!  Bees don’t like cold and they don’t like wind, but on a sunny, still day the number of them coming and going from the hive, laden with pollen on left and right, is a joy to behold.  Where they gather their pollen is a mystery, but it’s lovely to think of a connection with the flowers and shrubs in the garden.  And whilst we have a garden pond, we just don’t know whether that is their “local” watering hole.

Plenty of stores for Winter.

Moving from watching the bees to getting involved in hive management is something else.  A calm, peaceful approach seems to be the way and that is also good for stress busting.  Being a natural show off I couldn’t wait to wear my new bee suit on every possible occasion.  My wife’s is a fashionable mauve, causing a stir amongst our more fashion conscious neighbours.  When we started inspecting the hive and I had dozens of bees on the other side of my veiled suit I did start to feel quite nervous, but held my nerve and a couple of deep breaths helped me face my fears.

Now that we have had bees for a couple of months, and winter is drawing in, I feel we have come through the excitement of the “honeymoon” period (there’s another of those expressions!) and we are beginning a slower, long term relationship with our bees.  Long term for us (!) they only live a few months! Judging from the obituaries in the bee magazines, it seems that beekeepers (like gardeners and monks!) seem to live to a grand old age.  So I propose a spot of regular bee watching as a cure for the credit crunch! We may be financially poorer, but we will be spiritually richer, and if we learn to be patient we may even be rewarded with a bit of honey!

Andrew McMurtrie