Farm of the Week: Universities, smokers and a taste of honey

Bill Cadmore's farm takes in the roof of a Leeds office block and a number of suburban gardens – although we meet in a more conventionally agricultural setting.

In July 2009, he retired as assistant principal and teacher of physics and biology at a big Pudsey comprehensive and began an unusual new career.

It started with a deal to look after 50 colonies of bees acquired by Leeds University. He tends the hives and assists the research students for 75 a day, as required, on university land on Spen Common, near Tadcaster.

Of 15,000 beekeepers in Britain, all but 80 are hobbyists and most of the professionals make their money from honey.

Mr Cadmore does run a few dozen hives of his own, in his garden at Horsforth and in fields elsewhere on the edge of Leeds – at Idle and Rodley. You would need at least 200 hives to make a living, he reckons, although 50 is the official definition of a farm.

But he works mainly as a contractor, and so far he has only heard of one other in the bee world (in Warwickshire). He charges suburban gardeners 30 a visit to look after one or two or three hives – which will need attention once a week for the 20 weeks when bees are busiest and two or three times during the winter.

He collects the honey from a country house apiary of 15 hives in return for the profit on sales through the visitor shop.

Bradford University pays him to keep an eye on a hive on its central campus. And businesses which see bee-friendly as a desirable image look like being a growing market.

In June this year, Mr Cadmore set up a hive on the roof of the Leeds Building Society, on The Headrow, Leeds, next to PC World. What used to be a smokers' corner

was being turned into a garden and this summer the smokers shared it with around 70,000 bees – the peak population of the average hive.

The story will be told by the BBC1 documentary series Inside Out on Monday.

Will the smokers get stung? Well, not very often. A working bee will usually only sting if you are in its flight path and it gets tangled in your hair or clothing, says Mr Cadmore.

It does not attack lightly, because it will die when its barbed sting is torn off, to remain in the wound, pumping out a scent which calls for reinforcements – "which would make sense if a bear was pulling the hive apart".

He looks at which ways the bees are likely to fly and can move them onto routes compatible with the neighbours, by planting hedging or hanging nets.

The developers of a stalled building site on Wellington Place, near the Yorkshire Post headquarters, invited him to set up six hives, next to a five-a-side football pitch, and he surrounded the site with netting, which make the bees go high before they fly out to look for food. Both footballers and bees are doing fine.

However, if you mix with bees, you will get stung. "And you might swell up badly," says Bill Cadmore. "I have seen it happen and it used to happen to me. Now it just hurts like hell. But only for two or three minutes."

There is a surprising amount of pollen in Leeds city centre, apparently, what with the watersides, the parks, grow-bags on bus shelter roofs and hanging baskets. It is even better in the suburbs.

"The countryside is a horrible place for bees by comparison," says Mr Cadmore. "You get a crop and then it is gone and you have to find another one."

At this time of year, the fields around the university hives are bare and the bees need sugared water. But Mr Cadmore's suburban bees are self-sufficient, even after he has taken his own share of their honey. He sells it at Headingley Farmers' Market, second Saturday every month, 3.50 for 12 ounces. The supermarkets sell cheaper honeys from China, Australia, Argentina and Brazil. But a lot of people believe local honey prevents hay fever and Mr Cadmore sells 30 jars each summer to some of them. Then there are honey connoisseurs who turn up their noses at the pasteurised products of mass production and seek out the infinite varieties of "real honey" like a drinker pursuing rare whiskies. Heather honey from the Yorkshire Moors is the equivalent of a single malt and will fetch 6 for six ounces. But Leeds honey does just fine.

Mr Cadmore gets the odd call for help with swarms which have taken up residence in chimneys or air bricks. If he can keep the bees, he settles for a donation towards his petrol.

Homeless swarms could become more common, thanks to a boom in bee-keeping. The government's National Bee Unit is concerned about the risk – and about neglected hives becoming reservoirs of disease.

Bee-keeing teachers are struggling to keep up with demand and Defra has come up with money to help the British Beekeeping Association train more trainers.

Mr Cadmore is organising the programme and leading the design of a curriculum and teaching materials. It will be a while before all the new courses are ready but the waiting lists are a year long anyway. Contact your local BBKA branch for details.

Bill Cadmore wants people to learn enough to "read the hive – work with the bee". There are days when he can tell from the angry butts against his veil that he has come at the wrong time and then he goes away and waits.

"Sometimes I am happy just to sit and watch," he says. "And although a lot of the students have initially taken an interest because they are following the grant money, they all end up the same way."

He is less apocalyptic than some about the state of beedom. Some of the losses which have caused such panic were down to unfriendly weather, he says. This year has been fantastic for bees, starting with a cold winter to enforce proper hibernation ... "We have made up for at least half the colony losses of the previous three years."

Bill Cadmore sells Horsforth Blossom Honey through shops including The Veg Patch, Yeadon; Barratts grocery in Cookridge; Cranberries of Adel; and Wrights greengrocery and the Truly Scrummy deli in Horsforth. He is on 0113 216 0482 or [email protected]/

CW 6/11/10