{"id":4942,"date":"2022-09-29T07:38:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T06:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=4942"},"modified":"2022-10-07T09:54:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T08:54:14","slug":"home-sweet-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Sweet Home<\/span>Bill Anderson<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Just up the road from where I live in West London there\u2019s a tree with a wild colony of honeybees living inside a cavity in its trunk.\u00a0 You can see them in action <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Above the gravestones of Kensal Green cemetery, which include those of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Freddie Mercury, a Queen bee is laying her eggs in exquisitely engineered wax honeycomb, the way her predecessors have been successfully doing for at least fifteen million years.\u00a0 We\u2019ve only been around for 150,000 years or so, with questionable success, and on this timescale the bees could consider our entire species to be the avaricious, destructive 1%.\u00a0 How might they feel about any of us calling ourselves ‘beekeepers’?<\/span><\/p>\n

The half dozen beehives on my urban roof offer AirBnB accommodation.\u00a0 I don\u2019t ‘keep’ the bees that live inside \u2013 they keep themselves far better than I can begin to comprehend.\u00a0 I\u2019m merely a hive keeper, and only because swarms of local bees chose to move into the empty boxes I provided and transform them into hives of activity.\u00a0 Key to these swarms\u2019 success is choosing the most ideal home for the family of 60,000 they\u2019re about to raise.\u00a0 So I try to make my boxes emulate the tree cavities that have served the bees so well for so long.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research into tree-dwelling wild bees tells us that the scout bees who are investigating potential new homes for their swarm are looking for a Goldilocks empty volume of around 40 litres \u2013 about the size of our kitchen bins.\u00a0 They need an entrance large enough to allow busy air traffic at the height of summer,\u00a0 but small enough to be defendable.\u00a0 Like scrupulously honest surveyors the scout bees will measure, share and debate these particulars before the swarm commits to its new home in a <\/span>democratic process<\/span><\/a> that puts ours to shame.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offering up a 40-litre box we can putt golf balls into is not enough, because while we\u2019re often focused on the excellent pollination and delicious honey that bees provide, their immediate intent inside the hive is neither of these: honey is important to them but somewhat niche \u2013 it\u2019s the bee\u2019s winter food and fuel, stored sunlight to survive the few flower-free months \u2013 pollination is plants\u2019 private reproductive concern; however brilliant the bees are at facilitating it, plants procure sex from the incidental spillage as oblivious bees fly from bloom to bloom intent on gathering up protein-rich pollen to feed their young. As in all families the bees\u2019 most pressing, immediate priority is raising the kids \u2013 what we call honeycomb the bees might call nurserycomb:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Bees and larvae<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The interior of a hive is more of a neonatal ward than a honey factory \u2013 as many as 30,000 developing young need to be kept at a steady 35 degrees centigrade, day and night, or they will perish \u2013 and the bees have evolved an extraordinarily precise ability to maintain this temperature.\u00a0 But they perfected it in trees:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Storm damaged bee tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Typical tree cavities enclose the bees in around ten times the thickness of wood used in conventional beehives, and provide around ten times the insulation: thin-walled beehives require 50% more energy from the bees to stay warm in winter; baking summer sun can turn them into solar ovens that require vigorous emergency cooling.\u00a0 By cladding our hive boxes in 5cm of wool or cork we can provide the level of insulation from extremes of ambient temperature that the bees\u2019 aircon has relied upon for 15 million years.\u00a0 Inside our hives we have now created a familiar space for honeybees to thrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what have we done outside our hives?<\/span><\/p>\n

Deforestation to allow for unsustainable intensive monoculture has decimated the bees\u2019 habitat.\u00a0 Chemical fertilisers and excessive tilling have crippled the bacteria and fungi at the base of the <\/span>Soil Food Web<\/span><\/a> leaving poorly nourished crops more prone to attack by insects and fungi.\u00a0 This catastrophe has been symptomatically addressed with the diminishing returns of increasingly toxic and systemic pesticides and fungicides that are present in every cell of every grain of pollen the bees bring back to the hive to feed to their young.\u00a0 Research into sublethal effects of these toxins on bees rarely looks at more than one \u2013 and never at the synergistic toll of the cocktail of poisons found, literally, in the field.\u00a0 Even weedkillers like glyphosate, never intended to directly harm insects, disrupts bees\u2019 sophisticated solar navigation, <\/span>reducing their ability<\/span><\/a> to fly home with food that isn\u2019t labelled ‘Contains child-friendly poison which will affect your SatNav’.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regenerative agriculture<\/span><\/a> which puts the biology back into our soil is an essential part of an eventual return to sustainable nourishment for all, but right now the safest place for honeybees is in our cities.\u00a0 Instead of being surrounded by hundreds of hectares of a single crop like oilseed rape \u2013 which provides one flavour of chemically treated food for around six weeks after which rural honeybees will find themselves trying to survive in a food desert \u2013 urban bees enjoy unfettered access to hundreds of thousands of gardens artfully planted by humans to generate flowers from the early spring right through to the early winter.\u00a0 The diverse blooms that bring delight to our eyes and noses bring a rich, varied and prolonged source of food for the bees.\u00a0 Because urban gardeners are less concerned with yield and profit, they tend to apply fewer toxic chemicals, but we should press councils to lead by example, promoting zero use of chemicals that harm life in our public spaces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with councils, tens of thousands of us already freely provide bird boxes without any expectation of eggs for our breakfasts.\u00a0 We could do the same for honeybees: putting out leave-alone, insulated, empty 40litre bee boxes, ‘Welcome Hives’ that could create in our cities a forest of tree cavities like the one in Kensal Green cemetery.\u00a0 Honeybees\u2019 ideal hive entrance height is around 5 metres above the ground \u2013 out of harm\u2019s way for all of us.\u00a0 An urban sanctuary of democratically chosen Welcome Hives would of itself add no honeybees to the environment, it would merely offer suitable shelter in the presence of food \u2013 generating habitat in which the existing honeybees\u2019 population would naturally fluctuate into sustainable balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year up on my roof the balance took a dramatic tip: for the first time none of the honeybee colonies living in my AirBnB had survived the winter.\u00a0 Silent spring hives. Post mortems were inconclusive, but what was certain was the feeling of bereavement \u2013 my non-interventionist ‘idle beekeeping’ had mainly consisted of reclining near the hives meditatively watching the bees come and go.\u00a0 Now I was alone with the sky and cold, empty boxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two months later scout bees appeared out of the blue and began to check out my vacant hives.\u00a0 As they bobbed around the entrances, flying inside, reappearing, walking around a little, going back in, my heart leapt at the prospect of their enthusiasm.\u00a0 And now, even after three swarms have spontaneously moved into three of my hives bringing them back into business, I realise that so much more than any honey they might provide, it is the connection with these creatures that I cherish: when a swarm of 25,000 bees turns up and moves into your Welcome Hive bringing the air alive with the buzz of their dizzyingly singular, urgent intent, you don\u2019t just feel democratically chosen, you feel blessed.\u00a0 Watch them arriving <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bill Anderson<\/strong> is the author of <\/span>The Idle Beekeeper<\/em><\/span><\/a> and a columnist and blogger for <\/span>The Idler<\/span><\/a> magazine.\u00a0 He also <\/span>writes and directs<\/span><\/a> TV drama.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Just up the road from where I live in West London there\u2019s a tree with a wild colony of honeybees living inside a cavity in its trunk.\u00a0 You can see them in action here.\u00a0 Above the gravestones of Kensal Green cemetery, which include those of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Freddie Mercury, a Queen bee […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Home Sweet Home<\/span>Bill Anderson<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,1],"tags":[941,723,939,940,943,942],"yoast_head":"\nHome Sweet Home - Writers Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""When a swarm of 25,000 bees turns up and moves into your Welcome Hive bringing the air alive with the buzz of their dizzyingly singular, urgent intent, you don\u2019t just feel democratically chosen, you feel blessed.\u00a0"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home Sweet Home - Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""When a swarm of 25,000 bees turns up and moves into your Welcome Hive bringing the air alive with the buzz of their dizzyingly singular, urgent intent, you don\u2019t just feel democratically chosen, you feel blessed.\u00a0"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/writersrebel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-29T06:38:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-07T08:54:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/writersrebel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/bees.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Percival\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@XrRebel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@XrRebel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Percival\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katie Percival\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/#\/schema\/person\/58014cf4c5723b1bd41278b57688111c\"},\"headline\":\"Home Sweet HomeBill Anderson\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-29T06:38:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-07T08:54:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\"},\"wordCount\":1285,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"beekeeping\",\"bees\",\"Bill Anderson\",\"hive\",\"regenerative\",\"regenerative agriculture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"read\",\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/home-sweet-home\/\",\"name\":\"Home Sweet Home - 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