From a to bee james dearsley

The old romantic in me hadidealistic notions of taking my little boy up to the allotment, and each Saturdaygoing to check the bees with him just toteach him about the world and whereever

FROM A TO BEE

Copyright © James Dearsley, 2012

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced

by any means, nor transmitted, nortranslated into a machine language,without the written permission of thepublishers

The right of James Dearsley to beidentified as the author of this work hasbeen asserted in accordance withsections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988

Condition of Sale

This book is sold subject to thecondition that it shall not, by way oftrade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold,hired out or otherwise circulated in anyform of binding or cover other than that

in which it is published and without asimilar condition including thiscondition being imposed on thesubsequent publisher

eISBN: 978-0-85765-721-3

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of Summersdale books are available tocorporations, professional associationsand other organisations For detailstelephone Summersdale Publishers on(+44-1243-771107), fax (+44-1243

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This book is dedicated to Mum and Dad

for their unwavering support over the

years and to my sister Emma, to my

lovely Belle-Mère and also to Peter who

is sorely missed but never far from our

thoughts However, my darling Jo

deserves all the credit for putting up

with my crazy plans and ideas – for

which I am eternally grateful I am proud

to be her husband each and every day

Finally, this book is dedicated to mybeautiful boys, Sebastian and Edward,with whom I look forward to a lifetime

of adventures and mischief

I ran a social media competition to namethe title of this book and so I mustpersonally thank everyone that suggested

a title The winner, From A to Bee, was

suggested by Henrik Cullen, but I alsohave to extend my thanks to my goodfriend Rob Hoye, who was beaten intosecond place by a mere seven votes.Another good friend, George TC, camejoint third with Liz Bennett It was greatfun and thank you to all that took part andthank you to Summersdale, who allowed

me to run this rather madcap campaign

and have been supportive throughout and

a joy to work with

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Dearsley, the Surrey Beekeeper,

started The Beginner Beekeepers page

on Facebook, one of the largest online

communities of beekeepers, and is onTwitter (@surreybeekeeper) His site

www.surreybeekeeper.co.uk started as

a blog, so others could learn from hismistakes, and expanded into a shop andgeneral online resource for beekeepers

He has written for a variety ofpublications around the world including

The Ecologist and has recorded a DVD, Beekeeping for Beginners, with Charlie

Dimmock, which is now on generalrelease He lives with his wife and twosons in Surrey

Diagram of a Beehive Introduction

Diary

Resources

Beekeeping… Oh my, what have I done?

I am thirty years old, have beenmarried for three years and am a newfather to a fantastic little boy Surelythere are things that I should be doing atthis age which do not involve littleyellow and black insects that can hurtyou if you are remotely clumsy – which,

at 6 foot 5 inches, I have an amazingability to be My wife, Jo, thinks I have

lost my mind, and my little boy looks at

me rather strangely when I start runningaround the living room making buzzingnoises and flapping my arms frantically

as I try desperately to make him laugh Ithink maybe my wife is right My motherhas somewhat disowned me and blames

my father for my eccentric ideas – he is,after all, a morris dancer My colleaguesthink I have simply lost the plot; theytake a wide berth around my desk and nolonger engage in conversation, knowingthat it will end up with me talking aboutbees

It is no surprise, therefore, that I shouldreflect on precisely what it is that I amabout to undertake Especially when, a) Ihave spent my whole life running away

from what I have always felt to befrightening insects, and, b) I don'tparticularly like honey And yetregardless of these two small issues, Ihave started to learn the simple – or so Ithought – art of beekeeping

My decision to become a beekeeperstarted in the middle of the year on one

of those fantastic summer evenings whenthe light is beautiful, resting on thegarden, and I was there, glass of wine inhand, watering the flower beds It wasone of those moments to treasure until Irealised I had completely drenched apoor bumblebee trying to seek shelter inthe flower of a gladioli The poor littlething did not look too happy but justbumbled along onto the next flower I

was transfixed, and sometimes it takesjust a moment for me to becomeobsessed This was a glorious creaturejust going about its duty when a greatbeast of a thing (me!) came along tointerrupt its vital role in the great world

we live in

That moment got me thinking about thewhole bee world and it was then that Istarted reading about the plight of thehoneybee I hadn't even considered thatthere was more than one type of bee (Inow know there are over 200 differenttypes of bee in the UK alone) It sounded

as if they were having a hard time – and

I mean a seriously hard time – and notjust from the likes of ambitious andcompetitive gardeners watering their

plants Honeybee populations aredropping in considerable numbers due to

a multitude of factors which havecollectively been termed 'colonycollapse disorder' and not a lot wasbeing done, it appeared

There were also other reasons whybees were starting to appeal I wasbecoming increasingly fascinated byelements of the self-sufficient lifestyleand I love growing vegetables on theallotment The old romantic in me hadidealistic notions of taking my little boy

up to the allotment, and each Saturdaygoing to check the bees with him just toteach him about the world and whereeverything that ends up on his platecomes from

In order to turn my idealistic thoughtsinto reality I had to start to learn the art

of the beekeeper, if only to help the bees

in my area Maybe I could make adifference and cause a butterfly effect inthe UK which would spread throughoutthe world and save the humble bee…

I made it my mission to learneverything I could about bees I wouldget a couple of hives, bore my friendsand family (even my morris-dancingfather) with my new-found wisdom ofthe bee world and have a simple aim.Despite established hives being able toproduce upwards of forty jars of honeyper year, I only wanted to produce onepot of honey this year Yes, that's right,just one jar of honey It might not sound

an awful lot but I have heard it can berare for first-time beekeepers startingfrom scratch to get any honey in theirfirst year I hope you enjoy the journey

SEPTEMBER 23,

2009

My beekeeping career started today withthe first of ten two-hour classes I foundthe beekeeping course by performing aGoogle search and discovering that therewere beekeeping associations that ranevening classes I was already starting tofeel old even thinking about beekeeping,let alone thinking about attendingevening classes

I was feeling quite nervous as I drove

to the local school where the course wasbeing held, as I simply did not knowwhat to expect I was pleased to beearning brownie points as well aslearning a new skill because, should weever win the lottery, Jo and I would love

to send our son to this rather grandschool set in the heart of the Surreycountryside Therefore, I reasoned, thiswas to be a reconnaissance mission aswell as an evening class

While driving along on this miserablydark autumnal evening, I was wonderinghow beekeeping could possibly take tenweeks to learn Surely these little blackand yellow insects would be easy tolook after I was more interested in what

the fellow enthusiasts were like, letalone the teacher I had a very clearvision, probably gleaned from myknowledge of morris men: usually old,with beards, red cheeks and noses, well-rounded tummies and generally afondness for drinking ale I felt thatbeekeepers and morris men would be cutfrom the same cloth I wondered if beingbeekeepers-in-the-making, beginnerbeekeepers would only have partialbeards, slight tummies and merely a hint

of reddening of the cheeks and nose Theteacher, on the other hand, being fullyqualified, would have all the attributes

of the morris man

As I drove into the school's vastdriveway I was immediately in awe of

the beautiful building in front of me,softly lit by floodlights It was Gothic inappearance with impressive stoneworkand the most imposing arched windowsand doorways dotted around its facade Icould just imagine Sebastian cominghere I approached the door of theclassroom (which was one of theoutbuildings and not so impressive,having probably been built in the1960s!) with my heart beating slightlyfaster than usual The strangenervousness of a new situation wasdawning on me – as well as thefrightening thought of a room full ofmorris-dancing beekeepers

I opened the door and walked into theclassroom In fact, everyone looked

pretty normal Only about 40 per centhad beards – none of the ladies did –and there were only a few roundedtummies They all said hello to me,which was nice The classroom haddesks laid out in two horseshoes, with adesk at the front Having only just gotthere on time I was the only one sitting inthe smaller, inner horseshoe witheveryone else behind me I felt like anaughty schoolboy having to sit closest

to the teacher and voiced this point to theothers to subtle smiles

So the most difficult bit was done.Nerves gone, I just had to sit down andenjoy the next two hours David, theteacher, was incredibly informative andimmediately likeable I hadn't spotted

him straight away as he was standing off

to one side He was also the slimmest ofthe lot and had no reddening of thecheeks either, putting him way off mystereotypical beekeeper, though he didhave the tell-tale beard I later found outthat he was one of the top beekeepers inour area How do they measure this?Honey production? The beekeeper withthe most beehives? Who knows, but Iwas certainly fortunate to be learningfrom him

This first session covered the basicsand gave an insight into the world that Iwas about to enter Within ten minutes Irealised why these courses were tenweeks long There was so much to learn

I drove home from the session utterly in

awe of what I had just learned I nowknow what honeybees look like (they arenot the fat, hairy bees which are soobviously bumblebees but in fact looksimilar to wasps but with not so harshcolouring) and realise just howimportant they are to the world in which

we live I got home, offloaded a load of(what I believed to be) usefulinformation to my wife, and thenremembered about the reconnaissancemission I told her about the school:brownie points duly earned

I can't sleep but I know I'm hooked onbecoming a beekeeper

SEPTEMBER 25

It is now two days on from the first day

of the course that changed so many of myideas about the honeybee and I find that Icannot stop thinking about them One fact

on my course amazed me and I feel Ihave to look into it a little more Doingthis will introduce me to the practicalside immediately and make it all feel abit more real

I learned during Wednesday's sessionthat bees can forage up to 3 miles awayfrom the hive This fact astounds me.Imagine the journey these little bees do,just in the search for nectar and pollen!

I am truly desperate to look at a localmap but I don't want to rush into this Ihave a notion of sitting down with anicely brewed cup of coffee with a mapspread out in front of me I will locatewhere my hives are to be based (havenot got a clue where yet) and get a pair

of compasses and plot a nice circlearound my hives to the tune of 3 miles.There is a side of me imagining a WorldWar bunker-type operation, completewith the map sprawled out over thetable, low-level lighting, cigarettesmoke hovering overhead and memanoeuvring little bee models aroundthe map with funny-shaped sticks

I know I have a 1:25,000 map of thelocal area somewhere so I reckon this

will be enough to tell me all I need toknow How many farms are there aroundhere? How many fields for foraging andwhat types of crops are grown? This isobviously of utmost importance for thebees – I've heard that oilseed rape, forexample, produces a very early honeyharvest; if you leave it too long it goesrock hard apparently I hope I don't havetoo much of that nearby I feel fortunate

to live in the country with lots of roomfor them to forage I wonder if there's adifference between urban and rural beesand their respective honey…

After a short trip away with work, whichmeant being out of the house at 4 a.m.and only just arriving home at 11 p.m., Ihave had enough of my corporate worldfor today and am very tired I haveworked in the overseas propertybusiness for four years now and itinvolves a lot of international travel Forthe first couple of years it was fantasticbut now that I can even tell whenGatwick Airport WH Smith hasrestocked its shelves the travelling haslost its appeal However, with map inhand, I feel that now is the time to seewhere my little ones might fly to

Jo and I get into bed and I bring with

me the map and a glass of wine; whosays romance is dead?! I also bring apair of compasses ready to draw a nicecircle around a proposed hive location

to see just how far my bees will fly Ithink this an ingenious plan thoughperhaps not the best implement to takeinto the marital bed I then notice to myutter dismay that we are located right atthe bottom of the map; I can thereforeonly see the top of the 3-mile circle Even though I can only see half thestory I still know this is a huge area for

my bees to forage – a total area of nearly19,000 acres after some quickmathematics I immediately realise whythey say that bees literally workthemselves to death As I view the area I

also realise just how little I know about

my local landscape and, due to the factthat I live in pretty much the middle ofnowhere, how little I know about thefarming and agriculture around me

I feel that I have to know more aboutthis 'bee fly zone', and that I need to have

a drive around to familiarise myself, notleast because in that compass half-circle

I count about five public houses Imaginewhat I might find in the other, morepopulated half! As I am drifting off tosleep I feel it is entirely justified asmaybe, just maybe, my bees might flyinto the gardens of the public houses atsome point and I might need to go andsee what they are like What a lovelyexcuse to go and investigate A job for

the weekend I think

It's the second session of the coursetonight and again I come away with agreat appreciation for the 'humble'honeybee For such little insects they areunbelievably sophisticated Essentiallythe topic for this evening is the colonyitself and its structure, but I can see thatDavid is itching to tell us all someamazing facts:

• In just one hive there can be up to

60,000 bees but just the one queen(!).

• To make one jar of honey (youknow, your regular 454 gram jarfrom the supermarket) the beesfrom a beehive would have made atleast 25,000 flights to gather

enough nectar to convert into honey

• The average worker bee, in theirlifetime of only six weeks, despiteflying for hundreds upon hundreds

of miles, will only make one

twelfth of a teaspoon of honey

• At all times of the year,

regardless of the outside

temperature, the hive is kept at atemperature of between 32 and 35degrees Celsius It doesn't matter

whether you are in the Arctic

Circle or in the Sahara Desert!!

For someone who has been around beesfor most of his life, it's inspiring to seethat David's passion for them remainsstrong So are his concerns Though Iunderstand that we are going to discussbee diseases at a later date, he obviouslycan't avoid the elephant in the room: theproblems bees are facing I have read afew articles about the problems but Igenuinely didn't realise their extent Currently bee colonies are being wipedout at a rate of at least 30 per cent peryear, David says, every year In somecases, beekeepers in the US have beenseeing losses reaching 70 per cent in

some years The almond plantations inCalifornia are already having to ship inbeehives to help pollination as theresimply aren't enough bees to do the joblocally Considering this is an 800million dollar business there is a seriousdependence on bees: can you imaginemanually pollinating thousands of acres

of almond trees? I have heard about asituation in the deepest depths of Chinawhere people are employed to walkaround orchards all day with feathers onlong sticks to manually pollinate fruittrees I can't quite see this happening inAmerica somehow Meanwhile,shipping thousands upon thousands ofhives could be contributing to theproblem, with the bees getting stressed

on long journeys

What is also interesting is thebreakdown of the colony Of the 60,000bees in the colony, 90–99 per cent ofthose are the daughters and these aretermed the worker bees The name isparticularly relevant when you considerwhat these bees do in their lifetime:

• Clean the hive and other bees

• Feed the larvae, young bees andthe queen

• Deposit the pollen and nectar

brought in by older, flying bees intocells and start the conversion to

honey

• Maintain the hive's temperature byeither huddling together in winter

or fanning the hive in summer

• Make wax to build the comb

• Guard the hive from intruders

Incidentally, this is all before they areold enough to leave the hive, about threeweeks after they hatch They then simplywork to bring in nectar and pollen forthe hive, before dying of exhaustion out

on the wing; therefore reducing the work

of the others back at the hive Davidmentioned that they are the perfectexample of a successful democraticsociety and I can see this already Theyall work together for the good of thehive: incredible, really

It sounds a pretty tough life, especially

in comparison to their brothers who

seem to have an amazing life! The boybees are called drones and when I saw aphoto of one against a worker, it was

like watching an episode of Supersize vs Superskinny The drone is almost twice

the size and is essentially a fat, lazy slob

of a bee The drones simply wanderaround the hive expecting to be fed,cleaned and generally treated likeroyalty Their sole job in life, other thanjust chilling out, is to mate with a queen.Somehow they know when a queen hasleft a hive (how do they know that?!) andthe drones fly off to a secret location andcompete to get their wicked way.Apparently the queen may mate with up

to seventeen drones – she must beexhausted after that! If the drones