Village Raw - ISSUE 2

VILLAGE RAW
SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE
beekeeper who fell ill. He’s been looking
after them ever since and gives the office
workers some of the honey produced
every year. He also keeps bees at St
Pancras and Islington Cemetery in East
Finchley and adjacent to a home in Highgate,
discreetly hidden behind a fence.
It’s amazing to think that so many
hives can be dotted around London, with
people seemingly oblivious to their existence.
But keeping bees is not as straightforward
as it used to be. Varroa, a mite
that weakens bees, was introduced to this
country in 1992. “Beekeeping was simpler
before varroa,” says John. The national average
of losses is about 20% per year, he
tells me, more during long winters.
More recent threats include the Asian
hornet, common in France but also in
smaller numbers in the UK; and the small
hive beetle, currently as close as Italy.
Both can destroy honeybee colonies. Despite
these challenges, there has been a
surge of interest in beekeeping since John
took it up. He doesn’t see this as a problem:
“It’s really good that we are training
more people to look after bees sensibly.”
Training is advised for anyone who
might want to keep bees, whether on
roofs, allotments or gardens. Lucie Chaumeton,
who lives in East Finchley, keeps
some at the bottom of her garden and is
still a novice. This is her third season of
keeping bees after doing some training in
Barnet, where there is a teaching apiary.
“It’s therapeutic to be around them,” she
says, adding that she finds the hobby intellectually
stimulating.
“It’s fascinating,” Helen agrees. “The
more you look into it, the more obsessed
you get.” And, of course, the payoff is
the honey and a sociable network of local
beekeepers. “I’ve never met a nasty
beekeeper,” John says. His bees that
swarmed this year, incidentally, are now
thriving on Helen’s roof.•
North London Beekeepers is running taster
sessions on 15 September.
Book via www.beekeeping.org.uk
You can see more bee photos on our website:
www.villageraw.com/bees
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
• Grow more flowers, shrubs
and trees. Cyclamen and
mahonia shrubs are good
for winter months.
• Plant window boxes.
• Weed and cut grass less
often; let your garden
grow wild.
• Keep a pot of moist moss
outside that bees can use
for hydration.
• Ask your council to
adopt a pollinator action
plan. Friends of the Earth
has a petition you can
put your name to: www.
friendsoftheearth.uk/bees
“Each week I have to go through every hive carefully and then if
there’s honey to extract, that needs doing, and then it needs jarring,
labelling and selling. It’s not just looking after the bees.”
HELP THE BEES
MAKE YOUR OWN MEADOW
for the Protection of Birds. She’s proud of
the part they’ve played in making a positive
impact. “Planting wildflowers is absolutely
essential in helping the local bee
population,” she says.
In the world of beekeeping, John
Hauxwell is one person who has certainly
made an impact. A former chairman
of the North London Beekeepers Association,
John has been keeping bees for
about 40 years, as well as training others
in the art. We meet in Archway on a street
so clogged with traffic we have to pause
our conversation every few minutes.
It was in a similar urban setting that
John, who works as a swarm collector, was
called out to deal with a swarm of bees in
Camden earlier this year. They’d settled on
a bicycle outside a pub and were all around
the pedal and wheels. “People were walking
by all the time and there I was, all kitted
out,” he says, laughing.
Swarms are most common in May
and June but can occur in months on
either side. Put simply, this occurs when
a queen leaves the colony with a large
group of worker bees to set up a new colony;
half the bees will stay behind in the
original hive with a new queen. During
swarm season, a beekeeper does weekly
checks to see if queen cells are forming
inside a hive. If they are, it’s a sign that
bees will swarm. A rule of beekeeping is
that whoever finds the swarm gets to
keep it. Helen, for instance, was called to
a swarm in Kentish Town and used it to
replace one of her colonies that had died
over the winter. In a twist, this swarm
came from one of John’s hives, kept on
the grounds of a construction company.
John has had these bees for about 15
years and inherited them from another
Win a Seedball Bee Mix
tin and My Wildflower
Mix bulk bag
Post a photograph of Village Raw
magazine, open on any page of this
bee feature, to social media with
#savebees #villageraw and the
winner will be selected at random.
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