Rain and Damp

Rain and damp have plaqued these shores for the last 5 weeks. I'm worried about the bees. Are they warm enough? Can they find a honey source? Are the hives thriving? I was very glad to hear that Thimothy the beekeeper was due for another visit. He came late in the day. It was dry but overcast. The bees were still active but not like earlier in the day when they were going in and out of the hives in large numbers. Now the midges were out and for the first time this year they were stinging: much too early for my taste. Apparently when Timothy was here the last time and I was in the Burren, he had discovered that mites pestered the hives. He had put tablets of poison in the hives that he was now taking away again. But there was also good news. The hawthorn had come out in bloom like I had never seen before. Timothy took a photo of one of his bees feasting on the hawthorn blossom.

What are bees?

It is fun having bees in the garden and being properly impressed by them, but what are they? I went searching for knowledge. Bees or in our case apis mellifera mellifera, are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. They are important pollinators and produce honey and beeswax. Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica and where ever there are flowering plants. Bees feed on nectar for energy and pollen for nutrients. Most pollen is used for food for larvae. With their long tongue they suck the nectar from the flowers and pollen is gathered via the hind leg. Bees have two pairs of wings and a stinging hook for defense. The best-known bee species is the European honey bee. Ours is a sub species called the native Irish honey bee. Beekeeping is also known as apiculture.

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.

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.’

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.

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