River Cottage Spring What's got River Cottage buzzing?

Date Published:

04/06/2008

We talk bee psychology with the River Cottage beekeeper, and find out how honey fights hay fever

What do you look for when choosing a site for your hives?

There is a rule beekeepers follow; colonies should not be moved under three feet or over three miles. Bees always orientate back to their hive; if the hive is moved they will come back to the original site to find their hive is gone.

Ted Hopper, a fantastic beekeeping author, suggests you consider these main factors when choose a site for your hives:
Easy access for the beekeeper
Shelter for the hives from prevailing winds
Good air drainage
Keeping the hives away from heavy tree canopy
Making sure the main flight path of the bees does not cross a public path.

I like honey - can I keep bees in my garden?

Yes it is possible to keep bees in your garden, but you do need to be mindful of your neighbours. Consider the points above when looking for a hive site. In towns people sometimes keep their bee hives on roof tops, well away from people.

If the bees are out there collecting the pollen and making the honey - what do you do?

I would say beekeepers manage the bee hives. There are a number of jobs a beekeeper needs to do throughout the year. For example, in the summer months, a strong hive may well swarm (form a breakaway colony). To control this, beekeepers need to regularly check the hive for signs of swarming, and carry out measures to prevent this happening.

How much honey does a hive produce?

You have no way of knowing how much honey your hive will produce at the beginning of the season. If you have a good season, with lots of sunny days allowing the bees to go out and collect, a hive could produce over 60lb of honey. But the average hive will produce between 20-30lb of surplus honey - some honey does need to be left for the bees feed on the winter.

Manuka honey's been a big hit for its health giving properties - are we ignoring the value of our home-grown honey?

All honey has a number of health properties, from antiseptic remedies for sore throats to healing burns and cuts on the skin. Research has shown that its properties can be used to good effect in treating digestive problems such as ulcers as well.

It is also believed that if you suffer from hay fever, having a teaspoon of your local honey each morning will rid you of the symptoms.

How does country honey vary from honey made in the city? Can you taste the petrol in urban honey?

The difference between country honey and honey produced in the city is often down the difference in pollen and nectar collected by the bees. In the city there is often much for variety of flowers and plants, giving a difference in the flavour. You can't taste petrol in urban honey!

What makes a good honey? How can you make sure you're choosing a good honey in the shops?

I would recommend buying honey from your local beekeeper. You will find it has much more character and flavour compared to the mass produced honey you might find in the supermarket.

Tell us about your involvement with River Cottage

My role at River Cottage is to help co-ordinate the bespoke events at Park Farm - this includes the River Cottage festival and visitor days we run each year.

What's it like working at River Cottage?

River Cottage is a great place to work; there is just so much going on all the time and I work with a fantastic team. It is great that I have been given the opportunity to learn to keep bees at River Cottage.

Do work much with Hugh? Has he ever made you a sandwich?

Hugh has always been very supportive of my beekeeping at River Cottage, and he has seen quite a lot of the bees over the last few months while filming the River Cottage Spring series. He has never made me a sandwich but he prepared a lovely veggie dinner the other night for the team.

River Cottage ethos is about making sure animals live a contented existence - how do you keep your bees happy?

Letting the bees get on with their day to day business, without too much disturbance keeps the bees happy.

Do you find the bees fascinating? Do you think you've got a feel for what makes them tick?

I do find bees fascinating; it is just incredible how each bee instinctively knows their role in the colony which means they work perfectly as a team. I would like to think the more I get to know my colony the more I will understand them, but really you just don't know exactly what they are thinking, and what they plan to do next. They are aways keeping you on your toes.

What's your favourite way of eating honey? Should we be using it on more than toast and roast ham?

My favourite way to eat honey is to have it on brown buttered toast.

There are so many ways to use honey. It can be used in baking or added to marinades or served on yoghurt or put in smoothies. It can also be fermented to produce mead (an alcoholic drink made from honey, water and yeast).

There's always some issue being debated in the farming world - is it the same for bee keeping?

Beekeeping has been in the media a lot recently. Over the last few years, beekeepers in the US have found that their colonies of bees are just disappearing. This strange phenomenon is known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).

No one really knows why this is happening. A few theories are that the agricultural industry is using more and more highly toxic pesticides which may be harming the bees. Another theory is that bees are being overworked. Each year millions of hives in the US are taken hundreds of miles across the country to the various orchards where the bees pollinate the flowers while they collect nectar and pollen. This constant moving of the hives is thought to weaken the bee, making it prone to illness and disease.

In this country, a growing problem is the varroa mite. The mites feed off the bee by sucking its blood. It is becoming harder and harder to treat the bees for varroa as the mites keep coming resistant to treatments.

To find out more about River Cottage go to rivercottage.net,

To find our more about beekeeping I would recommend visiting the British Beekeeper Association (BBKA) website - a great organisation which lobbies for beekeeping in this country and can help you get started as a beekeeper.