The bees are here as the start of a Teaching Apiary to be managed by Bees for Development (BfD).
Thankfully the weather was OK for the arrival ceremony – it wasn’t raining and it was warm.
The bees had travelled from Abergavenny, about 40 miles, with Tony and Helen
Davies who had raised the nucs and who had made the top bar hives. Tony had
started these nucs in June; they looked healthy and happy and the bees were
very quiet even after their journey. The top bars from the nucs were very
gently added to each top bar hive. We didn’t see any queens in the transfer
process but there were lots of brood in the comb.
The hives have been situated in a quiet corner of the farm.
Over time the apiary site will be planted with bee friendly plants and kept
quite wild to provide a very natural habitat for the bees. The farm is organic
so that’s good for the bees – no harmful pesticides; and there are already lots
of bee-friendly plants e.g. willow, bramble, clover, lime trees, fruit trees,
comfrey, ivy, providing pollen and nectar year-round.
BfD promote sustainable methods of beekeeping and have been
working for over 20 years with a strong international presence. In the last few
years they have been promoting sustainable bee keeping in the UK and have held
courses at Ragmans for the past 3 years. The next course here
is on 13-14th October 2012.
Recognising the role of honeybees and all pollinating
insects is so important. Here at Ragmans we want to promote all aspects of
sustainable living, which of course includes creating an environment that
nurtures bio-diversity. Maintaining an environment that supports bee
populations and promoting sustainable
bee keeping is crucial and we are really excited and proud to have this
partnership with Bees for Development and all they do to encourage and support
people around the world to do just this!
The Teaching Apiary will be a core feature of BfDs course
programme at Ragmans and will enable course participants to see how top bar
hives work, how to site them and use them to look after bees. Other types of
hive e.g. a Warre and a National will be introduced for comparison purposes.
Our new top bar hives were supplied by Tony
Davies – thank you Tony!
