Creating a real buzz around beekeeping (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Creating a real buzz around beekeeping

8:54am Thursday 12th January 2012 in Behind the News By Sally Clifford

Cities may not appear to be appropriate places to keep bees.

We tend to associate swarms of the furry yellow and black insects feasting on flora out in the countryside, but Bradford is becoming a city at the forefront of urban beekeeping.

According to Bradford Beekeepers’ Association, cities are the perfect place for the insects to collect pollen – and beekeeping is becoming increasingly popular here.

The rise in self-suffifciency is another factor, according to Bill Cadmore, the association’s training officer.

Bill and his colleagues are busy developing hives in the city. They set up an apiary at the University of Bradford two years ago after being approached by the university as part of its ‘Ecoversity’ sustainable development initiative.

The arrival of 30,000 bees in a purpose-built hive enclosure at the top of an ampitheatre on the university campus is helping to sustain the bee population and the subsequent survival of our plants and crops, as well as adding to biodiversity.

Lou Comerford Boyes, one of three beekeepers at the university, says: “The reason we have the bee project is because we are an Ecoversity. We have a very strong emphasis on sustainable development, and keeping bees is good for the environment.

“There is a history of beekeeping in my family and I am very much part of and supportive of the sustainable development agenda. I am a research fellow and lecturer, and beekeeping allows me the opportunity to do something above my normal role.”

Bradford is understood to be one of only a handful of universties in the country to have their own apiary, yet many people in the district are probably unaware that it exists.

“The university is almost in the city centre and right in the middle there are four bee colonies. They have been there happily for 18 months and most of the population have not noticed,” says Bill.

“Cities are much better than the countryside for bees. The countryside is an awful desert for bees. If you think about the countryside around Bradford, most of it is grassland and there are actually not a lot of flowers out there, but as soon as you get into the suburbs you get gardens, parks, cemeteries and crematoria. You have food for bees from April to September.”

While the association’s base is at the university, Bill and his colleagues are eager to develop community hives. They have launched an ‘adopt-a-hive’ initiative to fund this. Eventually they hope to have their own training and educational facility within the city.

They are currently looking to set up apiaries at the newly-built community centre and business park in Eccleshill and on a community allotment in Wibsey.

Bill and his colleagues are also keen to work with local businesses. Some of the city’s corporate giants have already signed up to having hives in their grounds.

Yorkshire Building Society will launch their four hives, home to 120,000 bees, in the next few months.

Spokeswoman Julie Hemmings explains that it was approached by the beekeeping association for support through the Society’s Charitable Foundation, which helps local good causes.

Julie says the initiative fits in with the building society’s strong ethos on social, corporate and environmental responsibility.

“There has been a lot of publicity about the threat and decline in the bee population and the different pests and problems they are facing, but people don’t realise the role bees play in the wider environment, in farming, food production and in the bigger picture, whatever the environment,” she says.

Adds Bill: “Bees are important to our agriculture. The honey is almost negligible – the pollenation is worth £300 million. The last two years have been pretty good for bees, but before that Yorkshire lost 47 per cent of all its honey bees, for various reasons, and that is the situation across the country as well.”

Bill explains the main factor was a blood-sucking varroa mite. “It is still here, we have to learn to live with it,” he says.

Bill has two hives at his Horsforth home and some on farmland. His interest in bees stems from his background in biology. “I am a biologist by trade and did a biology degree. When I moved here 36 years ago, I moved next door to someone who kept bees. One day I saw a swarm hanging from a branch. I was hooked,” he says.

“I’m still fascinated. Whenever I open the hive and lift up a frame of bees, there are 70,000 bees and it’s fascinating how they organise themselves and work together.”

l For more about the Bradford Beekeepers’ Association, visit bfdbka.org.uk; e-mail: training@bfdbka.org.uk or secretary@bfdbka.org.uk.