View from the Society: Sweet value of the bee needs careful nurturing

Man’s interest in honey bees has come through the attraction of honey, not only because of our inherent sweet tooth but also because of the potentials afforded through fermentation to produce the ancient alcoholically potent drink honey wine, or ‘mead’. Before the discovery of how to process sugar cane, more latterly beet, honey from honey bees was folk’s principal source of sweetness.

From the honey bees perspective there’s an entirely different viewpoint. The evolution of nectar producing flowering plants, that utilised abundant pollens to fertilise and sexually reproduce, provided a highly nutritious food source for the insects, both as adults and for their young grub larvae. Honey bees are entirely vegetarian in their diet, unlike wasps for example that feed on meat for their sources of protein.

Like all diets diversity is critically important to honey bees. A rich variety of different cultivated and wild flowering crops, plants and trees in hedgerows is preferable to their existence. Not only do the honey bees, along with a wide range of pollinators, pollinate the crops, they also demonstrably improve both the quality and quantity of the yield: a farmers’ primary concern.

Continuity of flowering succession is equally vital, as it’s the eight months busy foraging throughout the summer that enables the colony of honey bees to accumulate sufficient stores. In the form of natural honey preserves, concentrated nectar, sealed with a wax cap in the ‘perfect packaging’ of beeswax comb, these take them through the dark, largely flowerless and ‘too cold to fly’ winter. Bees maintain a core temperature in their hives of about 34 degrees Celcius.

To help, one eminent farmer confided they’ve specifically allocated an hectare margin to plant a succession of Phacelia (Tansy) - a top 20 honey producing flower, as well as green manure - for the broader benefit of both the local (and their partners’) honey bees, and also other wild pollinators. To all round benefit: honey, fruits, nuts and seeds (for growing vegetables). Locally sourced seasonal supplies are sold at Fodder on the Great Yorkshire showground, whilst markets and shops often also sell local honeys year-round.

The Great Yorkshire Show’s honey section (probably the second largest competitive honey show in UK), has been staged each year since 1885. It aims to entertain, inform and educate visitors of the important value of honey bees in an agricultural context, as well as setting standards for the presentation and processing of honey and hive products.

Peter Lewis is the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s chief hives and honey steward at the Great Yorkshire Show.

He lives in high Pennine ‘Summer Wine’ country and has been a keeper of honey bees for about 10 years. His modest sized apiary is in the orchard at the bottom of his garden, shared with a few chickens.