Why have bees in London

I wrote a piece to argue the case for having bees on the small nature reserve where I have them right now. It's a shame I was not able to go to the meeting (Camden Nature Reserves Forum) where this was due to be discussed since I was away on holiday with the family. I spend some time writing the pitch, so thought it worth sharing some of it here for the record. I'll find out how the meeting went in the next couple of days.

Honey Bees in London?

Summary

• Honey bees are of critical importance to the environment and to human food production
• Honey bees are in trouble, with many threats leading to reducing numbers
• In London, honey bees can do relatively well compared to their country compatriots, but the availability of good urban sites is quite limited, especially in central areas.
• Should any London urban nature reserves be used to accommodate bees? What type of reserves might be appropriate, and what might the challenges be of trying this?
• A suggestion is made that interested parties meet at GP to discuss some pertinent points and, if willing, to enjoy assisting in a hive inspection.

Honey bees are important

Honey bees are of enormous benefit to local flora, and hence fauna too. They visit flowers to gather nectar and pollen which are taken back to the hive. The nectar is processed to make honey and then stored in wax capped cells. The pollen, being protein rich, is also stored as a foodstuff primarily for the young larvae. As the bees forage from flower to flower they spread pollen from one plant to another and hence pollinate the plants. Honey bees can forage over three miles from their hive.

With honey bee numbers diminishing alarmingly across this country (and others), it's important to help conserve the species which is responsible for 80% of all insect pollination worldwide. Most flowering plants in London are pollinated by honey bees, and hence they are a very important part of the lifecycle of a huge range of flora from wild flowers to large trees. Honey bees also pollinate many food producing plants which are common in London, examples of which are apple, cherry, hazel, pear, plum, blackberry, cucumber, onion, squash, sunflower, blueberry, cranberry, coriander, carrot, strawberry, fennel, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, brussel sprout, turnip, chestnut and quince to name but a few. It is estimated that one third of our diet is directly dependent on the relationship between flowers and their pollination by bees, with double this number dependent via indirect effects (such as animal feeds). In these plants if bees were not available then pollination would not take place and seeds would not be set.

Of course the bees also produce honey. Beekeepers can carefully remove some of this honey, though this must be balanced with the need of the bees. This important foodstuff is used as winter stores since although many bees work themselves to death in the summer, many thousand will survive through the winter so the colony can be up and running again early the following year. Even in the bleakest winter a healthy colony will contain about 10,000 bees. One of the benefits of this is that the bees are available in the early spring in some numbers when flowers such as snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils are flowering. These flowers are essential for the bees as the colony expands in early spring. A this time there are no other insects available to pollinate the flowers, and it’s only honey bees living in a warm, dry and nourished colony that can take advantage of the odd sunny day to nip out and forage. A few weeks later the weather is warmer and bumble bees and other insect pollinators are building up. Even then the honey bee colony is much stronger with a huge foraging force available - in the height of summer a colony has over 50,000 bees.


Problems for the honey bee

The current plight of the honey bee is well publicised. The problem is virtually global, with one third of colonies being wiped out in single years in areas of some countries. Interestingly, it seems that in general the situation in London is somewhat better, though some local beekeepers have lost a large number of colonies over winter. However, no reliable data exists. Whilst opinion is divided on exactly what the principal cause is to this global problem, there is a growing consensus that it’s likely to be a combination of stress factors. Top of the list if the varroa mite, a tiny blood-sucking parasite which is a problem since it spreads disease. One such disease is Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Other diseases exist, older well established ones being American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood. Both of these are notifiable diseases (bee inspector must be called in) and the treatment for the former is to destroy the colony. One newer disease is a fungus called nosema which is thought by some to be the main driver for colony collapse. However, whilst this list of diseases is a long one, there are other drivers to the bee deaths. Pesticides and herbicides are blamed by many due to direct and indirect effects on the bees. Many of these have been banned over time for directly causing bee deaths but, where effects are more subtle, proving that adverse effects exist is much more challenging as is the banning of chemicals. Another, more subtle effect of the herbicides is their effect on reducing the amount of forage available to the bees. It’s interesting to note that honey yields from city hives are generally quite a lot higher than from hives in the countryside. Initially this sounds quite counter-intuitive, but the plight of the country honey bee is clear to see when considering the combined effects of increasing herbicide effectiveness, farming being undertaken with huge mono-cultures, and the reduction of hedgerows. Interestingly, one hundred years ago there were around one million kept bee hives in the UK. Today there is less than a third of this number. Feral bee colonies do exist, but are now relatively rare since wild colonies tend to fall victim to the various bee diseases within a few years.

Honey bee sites in London?

It is estimated that there are 2000 beekeepers in London, but only a portion of these are active due to the challenges of accessing appropriate sites. Hives are somewhat common on allotments, though these few in more central areas. Bees are kept on roofs (the Royal Festival Hall, for example), in large private gardens (Buckingham Palace, for example), on the balconies of tower blocks, and even on boats (a barge owner on the Regents Canal keeps a hive there).

Positioning a hive does not require a huge amount of space. On warm days there will be many bees constantly leaving and entering the hive, but the bees generally fly about in the area 1-2 meters in front of the hive before buzzing higher. In confined spaces it’s possible to site the hive facing a wall or other barrier, and the bees deal with this easily by simply buzzing straight up to 3-5 meters, their typical foraging altitude, after they leave the hive.

What does beekeeping itself entail? Approaches vary between beekeepers regarding feeding bees in lean times and in administering disease prevention substances. However, one common activity, in spring and summer the hives are opened for inspection on a weekly basis to check that the bees are healthy and that the queen is laying. Extra vigilance is needed in spring and early summer to minimise the likelihood of some of the bees swarming to another site. They can do this as a way of propagating their colonies, with the old queen leaving with half of the workers. Swarm management techniques are important both to maintain a vigorous number of bees in the original colony and to avoid angering local residents. Whilst bees are currently popular in the minds of the public, irrational fears and ignorance are still widespread. Most people have a relatively mild reaction to stings. A tiny portion of people can, however, have a powerful reaction called anaphylactic shock which requires immediate medical attention. Bees are, however, not aggressive unless directly provoked.

Ideally hives should be sited in discrete places out of the way of the general public and potential nuisance. It helps to have them sited away from overlooking buildings – many people who live next door to well positioned hives don’t even know it. It’s very useful to have good vehicular access to the hives since this makes the carriage of heavy hive boxes much less onerous to the beekeeper. This access can be especially challenging in London with parking so restricted as it is. Also, it’s good to keep 2 hives as a stable minimum in a location. The colonies do not interact (save for a little drift of bees between them if too close, which is not desirable) but there are benefits from the beekeeping perspective. If a colony becomes week it is possible to repopulate it from another hive, whilst taking care to do so with techniques to stop the bees fighting. If one of the queens dies or becomes unproductive, it’s possible to re-queen from the other colony. This can either be done by inserting queen cells (protected initially) from the stronger colony, or by inserting eggs from the stronger colony which the workers will then be able to develop on into a queen rather than a worker by a special feeding regime. More basically, it allows for comparisons between the hives to help give clues to how each colony is doing given a particular site and set of weather conditions. It is not necessary to have more than one hive per site, but it makes beekeeping easier and helps the beekeeper in taking measures against some of the problems bees can run up against. Other desirable aspects of a hive site is that it is somewhat sheltered, relatively dry (best with few overhanging branches which can drip), and with access to direct sunshine on the hive itself (early morning sun on the front of the hive is ideal). A perfect combination of factors is unlikely on many sites in London where space is at a premium.

Bee hives on a nature reserve – reasons and issues

“London Wildlife Trust . . . manages over fifty London-wide reserves and campaign to save important wildlife habitats, engaging London’s diverse communities through access to our nature reserves, volunteering programmes and education work.” LWT is not the only group to manage reserves in London, but its tagline is fairly typical for many of the groups, the aims typically being to both promote and conserve wildlife, and also to promote public understanding of and involvement in that wildlife.

So, what of locating bee hives on nature reserve land? It seems clear that using some such land for the purpose of hosting bee hives ticks many boxes on the wildlife conservation and promotion agendas. However, even conservation workers who appreciate the benefits that honey bees provide might feel understandably wary when standing next to a thriving hive. This might restrict full and normal access to a nature reserve for conservation workers if hives are poorly positioned.

What of the other purpose of many nature conservation sites: to engage the public? Compared to conservation workers, concerns regarding the general public are perhaps greater since these people are often invited onto site, and may well be more nervous and ignorant of honey bees. The importance of this concern depends on the positioning of hives and the amount and type of public access on the site. On the flip side, there are possibilities to get the local community more involved in a nature reserve because of the bees. Beekeeping is a fascinating and rewarding hobby in which there is widespread public interest. I was recently involved in a project run by Ealing Beekeepers in Perivale Wood nature reserve. Groups of children attended over the course of a week to hear more about bees and undertake some interactive experiences such as candle making. We secured funding for enough bee-suits to clothe groups of children and I presented bees and beekeeping whilst showing them a rare feral colony. The children gained a lot from this experience and it’s a project that we hope to reproduce in future.

So, there are good arguments for keeping honey bees on various types of sites across London, and some challenges too. Honey bees are beneficial both to the environment and London residents. It’s not a simple decision to put bees on any given site, even a site which is a nature reserve. After considering these benefits and challenges, there are open questions as to whether London based nature conservation groups are able and willing to help in siting hives in London.

Bees at GP

GP is an LWT managed nature reserve in Maida Vale. It is a small site which is overhung by several large trees. The site's history is unclear, but there's a story that there used to be an old coach-house there. It has been a nature reserve for many years now, and several years ago bees were briefly kept on the site. The centre of the site is taken up by a huge copper beach and there is a pond with frogs, toads and newts. An ancient mulberry tree lies horizontal but still fruits in the summer, and near this there is a fox den.

GP is very close to my house, hence low food miles on the honey. I mostly cycle there but am forced to drive when carrying heavy hive boxes, though luckily my parking permit covers me right outside the door. Having asked and been given permission to keep two hives there, I moved one on site at the beginning of June and another in mid July. Both colonies appear to be doing well. Shortly after installing the second hive, concerns were raised about the impact bees would have both on the maintenance of the site and the use of the site by visitors. The latter is currently limited, but there are potential plans to increase use. Possible responses are to better position the hives on site, or to remove one or both of the hives. Moving hives off site is a challenge, since there’s a general beekeeping rule of “less than 3 meters or more than 3 miles” since if a hive is moved any distance between this then the bees will return to the old site rather than the new one and probably die. Hives moved more than 3 miles are generally OK since the old site is not in the foraging area and hence the bees return to the new site. Hives moved less than 3 meters will usually be found again. “In-between” moves are not impossible, but certainly risky for a colony. In fact I saw this myself when trying to relocate the second hive further into an unused part of the site (next to a wall, next to the first hive). I moved it over completely (only 3-4 meters) and witnessed a growing mass of bees (returning foragers) buzzing in the space above where the hive had been before. When I moved the hive back to half way between old and new positions the swarm in the air slowly started to disappear and I saw bees entering the hive. The alternative, of course, is to find an alternative site more than 3 miles from GP. I don’t find it appropriate to regularly drive this far to look after the bees, so such a move would mean me having to find an alternative beekeeper to take on the bees.