Three hours isn’t long to give people a flavour or what beekeeping entails – but they went away knowing more about how a colony works, what’s in a hive, and the many things you need to consider when taking up beekeeping.

Ann, who comes along on a Tuesday night for the summer C0-op course we teach, popped in to give participants a first-hand account of what it’s like to be a new beekeeper. “You get very attached to your bees,” she told them. Do you talk to your bees? asked one. “Yes, she replied. “I even sing to them.”

http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/dairy-of-a-museum-of-london-beekeeper/

The hives had been lovely assembled as homework some weeks ago and were patiently waiting (along with the trainees) in gardens, backyards and allotments across the capital for their new occupants. There were no shortage of trainees willing to make the trip out to Surrey last week to pick up the 10,000 bee-strong colonies from the supplier I arranged to buy them from at the beginning of the summer. In the end, three people met me in hatchbacks and then distributed the bees in their respective areas of London.

After months of diligently attending the Tuesday night course to learn both the theory and the practical stuff  at the four hives on site, how did it feel to actually have bees at home? Were they prepared?

Esther said: ”I was so excited I nearly popped!”  when her bees arrived in darkness. Her partner carried  them onto the north London allotment  where they will live. “I love them already” she added.  The following evening she had a small welcoming ceremony for her bees with family and friends and a local beekeeper which included bee poems and thanks to the Co-op and myself for giving her this wonderful opportunity to keep bees.

Volker, whose bees ended their journey from Surrey on the back of his bike, are now happily located in a city farm in east London. He sums up many a new beekeepers’ sentiment when he says “Just a shame we’re not supposed to have a look for a week [after they have been transfered from the nuc box to the hive]“.

Not everyone remembered that the roof won’t go on the hive when you give your bees a welcome feed, unless an empty super box is added, so I sent out some reminder notes.

A week on and the sense of excitement, joy and wonder is still palpable.

And Kate, one of the trainee beekeepers at Camley Street in King’s Cross, funded by the Co-op’s award winning Plan Bee campaign, now has her blog posted on its Plan Bee website.

Emma from the The City of London Festival (COLF) and myself dashed around the square mile delivering the bees to their new locations.

The roof of St Paul’s, Museum of London, Mansion House are among the new sites.

www.urbanbees.co.uk

www.colf.org

The BBC and National Trust seem to be doing a great job on this front with its Bee Part of  it! campaign, launched last month.

The work we are doing with the Co-op in Camley Street in King’s Cross got a mention on BBC Two’s Working Lunch programme on 8 June and on the Naked Scientists on local BBC radio last Sunday- now on a podcast so you can listen to it here.

In addition to the swarming season, we began two hands-on training courses in May: the six week course on Wednesday evenings in Battersea and the summer-long course in King’s Cross funded by the Co-op. Both are going well. We’ve got two hives for the Battersea students, some of whom have graduated from the one day taster course we were running in the autumn/winter. At Camley Street Natural Park, the bees just arrived this week so the class helped transfer the nucs into the four hives which form the training apiary. It was great for them to finally handle bees after a couple of weeks of theory classes. The 20 aspiring apiarists have all been supplied with hives, smokers, suits and hive tools by the Co-op and should get their own bees by the end of June. Until then they’ll be getting the hang of handling the bees and hive inspections at the training apiary once a week.

As for the City of London festival, the sites have now all be chosen and the bees are excepted very soon. More details to follow.

On Saturday 1 May, Urban Bees is giving a talk about how to bring bees to the city.

The scheme is part of the Co-op’s Plan Bee campaign that is helping to address the worrying decline in the British honeybee population.

The Co-op piloted an urban apiary and beekeeping courses in Manchester last year, now it is rolling out the idea to inner city London and to Inverness.

In London, it asked Urban Bees to find a suitable site. We approached Camley Street Natural Park in King’s Cross with the idea of introducing honeybee colonies into the park and utilising its classroom facilities to run beekeeping classes.  The nature park – an oasis of tranquillity behind one of the busiest train stations in Europe – is run by the London Wildlife Trust and is an established public recreational and educational facility. It readily agreed to host four training hives and is excited to be part of a project that will introduce more honeybees and more responsible beekeepers into the capital.

Camley Street Natural Park

The project will get going next month when the bees have been delivered onsite and the would-be trainees selected from a long list of hopefuls who applied to the Co-op.

We’re going to be running the beekeeping one evening a week at Camley Street throughout the summer, with monthly sessions in the winter, so that we  train a cohort of responsible new beekeepers in their first year.

As part of the scheme, the Co-op is proving hives, equipment and bees for the new beekeepers – that’s more than 1.2 million new honeybees introduced into the capital.

For aspiring apiarists not lucky enough to get a Co-op hive, we will also be running a series of short ‘introduction to beekeeping sessions’ over the summer at Camley Street. We will shortly be posting details about how you can apply for a place on one of these sessions.

Working with Camley Street Natural Park means that the project will be sustainable and have longevity after the Co-op funding runs out. And by incorporating the apiary into its educational framework, LWT will help to educate Londoners about the vital role honeybees play in the environment.

Urban Bees is very excited and privileged to be able to work with the Co-op and Camley Street Natural Park to encourage beekeeping in London.

We are hoping that people who attend the course will be able to share their experiences by posting photos, comments and blogs at a dedicated site.