In the Green Zone

The hives were now neatly tied up and weighted down with a rock. As an extra precaution Timothy the beekeeper said that when he was coming back he was going to put a sheep wire fence around the hives making it a kind of compound where no terrorist sheep could penetrate; a bit like the Green Zone in Bagdad. The next day the damaging sheep had disappeared. Later I was told by Polranny Pirates’ friend Annie Masterson that Johnny her grandson and Michael, Peggy’s son had moved the offending sheep quietly like, under the cloak of the night back to the pen where they belonged. After that all seemed quiet on the western front.

Fit to be tied

I was so upset about what the sheep had done to the hives that I was fit to be tied. I was sure the exposure of the inside of the hive to the elements would lead to the death of the whole swarm. What would that do to Timothy the beekeeper? Only one day after he managed the hives and so deftly and knowledgeable cared for his beloved bees. I was sure he would deem me unfit to host his bees as I could not even protect them from fecking sheep! Timothy would pack them up and take them away leaving me all alone. Then I knew that the bees had entered my life big time. But Timothy was unimpressed: ‘No harm done’, he said. ‘This is sheep country. Something like this is to be expected. It could have been worse. I should have tied the hives up properly.’ What a relief!

Damaging sheep

The next morning I was in total despair. Over night the sheep of neighbour Peggy , foraging for food away from home, had dislodged one of the hives. Part of the inside of the hive was exposed and bees were flying around angry and disoriented. I called Timothy’s mother as I didn’t have his phone number, to ask if she could tell him that there was an emergency. Then I got into the car to get Peggy and drag her to the scene of the crime to get her sheep sorted. But Peggy was nowhere to be found, probably hiding under the bed as soon as she saw my red car racing up the driveway.

The bellows

Before they left Timothy the beekeeper showed the workings of his smoke producing bellows. It was a beautiful gadget of unditerminable age made out of copper and was full of dents. It was obvious that it had seen a lot of action in its working life. A friend had given it to Thimothy. The leather on the bellows had badly deteriorated but after it was replaced by part of an inner tube it worked again. The smoke is supposed to have a calming effect on the bees and is produced by smoldering hay or straw. Amanda photographed it all on her smartphone. Notice that the wooden starter hive is not tied up to the hive stand nor weighted down by a stone. It would cause great drama the next day...

The Queen receives her crown

Finishing the whole procedure with a florish Timothy the beekeeper put a bright green dot on the queen’s head. The green dot was het crown and made her stand out from the other bees. ‘There you are! In two weeks I will come back to check on their progress.’ And with that Timothy and Amanda left me alone with the bees. I was over the moon with having the bees in the Polranny Pirates’ garden. It was as having a vegetable patch: making the space useful and adding something to its core value.

The Queen gets her wings clipped

Timothy the Beekeeper took out a pair of old fashioned bended nail scissors and clipped the queen’s wings. ‘Now she cannot fly anymore. When another new queen gets born and this one leaves the hive to swarm she won’t get very far,’ he grinned. Our neighbour had bees and once one of his queens followed by a swarm landed with us. We weren’t home at the time and before my neighbour had located the errant queen, she had established herself under the roof of the porch, between the ceiling and the roof covering. He never managed to get her out and for years when it got hot in the summer we could smell the honey.(photo Amanda Stevens)

Ring around the Queen Bee

Once Timothy and Amanda had found the queen, they placed a metal ring around her. The metal ring had spikes on the underside that fixed it to the combs. Now the queen was isolated from the other bees and helpless. The beekeeper could perform his evil deed on her.

Looking for the Queen

The swarms in the starter hives were new. The bees were still small in numbers and the queen bee had not yet been identified. That was what happened next. Beekeeper Timothy Stevens took out every single one of the frames that hung inside the hive. He and Amanda studied the bees on them carefully till they recognized the queen. Which one of the thousands of bees was the queen? To me they all looked the same. ‘But the queen has a longer thorax,’ Timothy said. ‘That is how she distinguishes herself from the others.’

The tools of the trade

By now the bees should be settled into the new environment and it was time to see how they had come out of hibernation and identify the queen. Timothy opened the styrofoam starter hive first. Next he put out the tools of the trade: an old-fashioned pair of rounded nail clippers, a metal ring with spikes and a marker pen. (photo Amanda Stevens)

The Pirate that was mistaken for a tree

While Timothy and Amanda Stevens were busy with opening up the starter beehives I watched. I was so curious I could hardly contain myself. I wanted to be there on top of what was happening. Slowly but surely I crept closer. Strange thing was, the bees did not pay me any attention while they were crawling all over Timothy. ‘Because you are standing next to the tree they think you are part of it’, Timothy laughed. Ah well, just a new angle on tree hugging so it is.(photo Amanda Stevens)

Amanda and Timothy Stevens in Beekeeper's suits

On April ninth the white van drove up again. This time Timothy the beekeeper was accompanied by his wife Amanda. Both got into white beekeeper’s suits complete with mesh hoods. It made them look like space travellers. Very impressive. They asked if I wanted to wear a suit too or at least a hood. I declined. I intended to stay far away enough not to be in bees way. But I did take my old mobile phone with the trusted camera along.

Intruders

The next day the sun got out and a week of glorious weather started. Spring was in the air and the bees ventured out into their new foraging grounds. But the bees were not the only ones who wanted to discover new territory. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is what the sheep think. Especially when their own patch has been eaten bare and the growing season has started everywhere else. The fences of the Polranny Pirates have been neglected since sheep were not allowed in the road anymore. That made the growing grass in the Polranny Pirates’ garden an easy target for the hungry break-away sheep of neighbor Peggy. She has only eight sheep but they sure can be a nuisance as we will find out later on.

Substitute for honey

During hibernation bees do not go out to collect honey. Also their food reserves have been taken away when the beekeeper harvested the honey from the hive for his own purposes. That’s why they get sugar as substitute food. ‘To feed them till they have found their way again to the honey source,’ Timothy said. On the photo you can clearly see how the bees enter the bag with feed from the frames in the Styrofoam starter hive. When the hives were finally closed a heavy stone was put on top to keep the whole thing in place. ‘I’ll be back next week to see how they are adjusting to the new environment,’ Timothy the beekeeper promised.

Of hexagonal honeycombs and larvae

‘Lets have a look inside the hives,’ Timothy the beekeeper said and took the lid off the starter hives. First there was a shelf with feeder bags. He took that off too. Inside the beehives hung a number of frames. Most screens were filled with honeycombs. Some were empty and others were half filled. ‘The bees make honeycombs with beeswax that they secreted from a gland. The hexagonal combs are little rooms for the larvae to grow in. Some screens have already pre-fixed combs in them.’ Timothy explained. ‘We help them along by putting in screens that are already filled with pre cast combs. The larvae are fed on honey.’

When bees do sting

Timothy installed the beehives on the hive stand he had put behind the screen. He wasn’t dressed in a beekeeper’s protective suit and hood. He did not even wear gloves. ‘The bees are still groggy from hibernating. At this stage they are very docile. It is only later in the year, around July and August when they are very busy that they are more liable to sting.’ Of course! As a child I had experienced many times that bees, contrary to wasps, were not sting-happy. They only stung when they felt threatened. Once they put the hook into the human skin, they could not get it out and would die. I remember looking on in horror how after I was stung and I had swiped the bee away in a panic I was left not only with a hook but also with the poison gland sticking out of my skin.

The starter hives

Timothy Stevens the beekeeper also took out of his van a nifty homemade folding bench that he calls a hive stand. It made an open and level platform about a foot off the ground for the two hives to sit on and be secure. Finally he took out the two hives. They were disappointingly small. One was made out of wood and looked the part somehow, but the other looked more like a Styrofoam cool box. ‘They are starter hives with small swarms in them. The swarms will grow in size over the summer,’ Timothy explained. ‘By July they will have reached full force and are ready to produce honey. By then more storeys will have been added to the wooden hive and the Styrofoam box will be replaced by a wooden hive. The population of bees will have grown to sixty thousand.’ I was impressed.

The learning curve

On the third of April the white van finally drove up to the house again. ‘I brought you two starter hives,’ Timothy announced. He took out stakes and green mesh: ‘I’m putting up a screen first,’ he explained. ‘The hives will be placed behind it.’ ‘But I was told they need space for a free flight when they come out of the hive,’ I said. ‘When the bees get out to forage they are hungry and impatient. They won’t tolerate anybody in their way. Now they have to gain altitude first and if you’re around they will fly over your head.’ It was the beginning of a learning curve. That much I understood.

A location for the beehives gets chosen

Nothing happened for a couple of months. I was already getting sort of disappointed as I was quite taken with the idea of the Polranny Pirates being host to bees. Then one morning a white van stopped at the house and father and son Stevens emerged. They were in the neighborhood and Timothy decided to take a look at the garden and see if it was fit for bees. I showed them the three possible locations that I had sought out. Timothy’s preferred spot was fortunately the same as mine: the area along the west fence. ‘The bees are still hibernating, but as soon as we have had a couple of days with temperatures over 15 degrees I’ll bring a few hives,’ Timothy promised. ‘That is usually after Saint Patrick’s Day.’ He added. Saint Patrick’s Day came and went, but temperatures stayed low.

Waiting for the Beekeeper

While waiting impatiently for news from beekeeper Timothy Stevens I heard from my neighbor whose husband had kept bees, that they needed shelter from wind, a free run in easterly direction and they wanted to be away from people. The Polranny Pirates could provide that and plenty of it I found out walking through the garden. There was one particular spot along the west fence that caught my fancy. It had been cleared recently from rubbish shrubs and was protected by low growing alders, gorse and fuchsia bushes. Nobody ever ventured out in that direction and, best of all, you could see it from the house.

Clew Bay Honey

‘Clew Bay Honey is the name of Timothy's business,’ his mother told us matter of fact. ‘ He has about fifty beehives and is expanding.’ ‘Does he have them all around his place?’ I asked. ‘He parks the hives out everywhere in the area: from Castlebar to Achill. Wherever people are willing to take them.’ Now that was interesting. ‘Would he put them in the garden of the Polranny Pirates?’ I asked. ‘I’m sure he will.’ And she proceeded to send him a text with my wish. And that was it.

Polranny Pirates hear about bees

Like all things momentous, having bees in the garden of the Polranny Pirates' hide-away started quite innocuous. It was on one of the days between Christmas and New Year that Ken and Toke Stevens from Newport came to dinner with the Polranny Pirates. Toke told us about the exploits of her children who we know since they were born, but lost sight of after they grew up. Timothy, the eldest, his mother said, was into bees; in a rather serious way, actually. Wow! Bees! That sounded interesting. Bees the charmingly creative, honey producing insects with a nasty painful and sometimes dangerous sting. While beekeepers, at least the one I knew, were thoughtful, patient and caring. When he was a child we used to call Timothy ‘the philosopher’ because he thoughtfully mulled over bits of information. It seemed somehow appropriate that as an adult he would get into bees. Photo: Amanda Stevens