Let’s be bee-friendly

WILDLIFE GROUNDSWELL:  TALKING POINT

Let’s be bee-friendly

Have you considered installing a tree hive?  What even is a tree hive?  I had no idea until my friend Sandra asked me whether she could put one up in my orchard.

We all know that honey bees are important pollinators for the food plants we eat;  and we are used to seeing the conventional box-shaped ground-based hives which bee keepers use for their hives, and from which they collect honey.  But there is an alternative:  a hive which replicates the ‘natural’ hollow-tree home which honey bees have evolved to use, and which is also located in their preferred location high above ground level.  This is better for the bees and also maybe safer for us, since it takes the bee flight path up above our head height and so reduces the risk of accidentally being stung.

I recently read ‘Cornerstones’ by Benedict Macdonald, which describes the fascinating and complicated inter-dependencies of species focused on selected ‘keystone’ species.  He begins the chapter on bees with a description of how farmers and growers in some parts of China now have to pollinate all their plants by hand because the over-use of chemical insecticides has virtually removed all of the natural pollinators.  What a chilling thought!

In Britain, our bees of all sorts are also under threat - from neonicotinoids and other agricultural chemicals, from pests such as the widespread and devastating varroa mite which particularly affects honey bees, and more recently from the influx of Asian hornets which decimate populations of all sorts of flying insects including honey bees.  This makes it even more important that we do all we can to protect bees, and here on the Lizard in particular this includes our native black Cornish honey bee.

The erection of tree hives is one important way in which we can achieve this.  These hives are designed, not for honey production, but with the bees’ welfare as the priority.  They are well insulated, so that the bees stay warm during the winter and don’t use up valuable energy and food shivering to keep warm, as in a conventional hive,  Tree hives are located to give the bees good access to food sources and clear flight routes out of the hive and, perhaps most importantly, we do not usually take honey from the hives. 

All of this means that the bees stand a much better chance of being healthy and resilient to disease and predators.  They are left alone to live their best life and we in turn benefit from their work ensuring that our food crops continue to be pollinated. 

Sounds good?  Why not think about installing a tree hive in your garden - or if that is not possible maybe start a conversation with your neighbours about funding and installing a community tree hive in your parish.

More information available at justbeeecohives.com and https://beekindhives.uk/

Article by Caroline Richardson, Wildlife Groundswell CIC