Page 47 - ALG Issue 4 2017

Does your allotment have room for bees?
It’s something many site secretaries will have been asked about over the years. Can a plotholder keep bees on their plot? There’s nothing in the allotment act to support the keeping of bees on allotments, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen or that it shouldn’t be encouraged.
Some sites might not be very big but does that mean bees are out of the question? It is all about how much space they’ll take up on an individual plot and whether there’s enough forage locally. They’re unlikely to forage very much inside the allotment site, instead preferring bigger areas of plants like trees or elds.
How much room does a hive take up? Not very much! But one hive actually means two in order to handle the swarming prevention, and if you have extremely proli c bees you might need to deal with a second batch of swarm control before you’ve merged back the originals.
What else do bees need? They need a good water supply that they can access all year round. Without a pond just for them, they will nd dripping taps or soggy plots irresistible and that’s where con ict might arise.
The beekeeper needs insurance and this is a bene t of being a member of your local BBKA group. You’ll get public liability insurance as part of your membership. You’ll also get bee disease insurance. The beekeeper should also have some training and support from other beekeepers. Working towards the Basic assessment is a condition of having bees on my own allotment site, and being under the supervision of a mentor helps new beekeepers deal with what the bees throw at them. There are tons of brilliant books available,
as well as pages on social media sites and good old fashion web forums for learning and asking questions. You need to learn how to look after your bees, or you’ll be buying new ones each year!
What might put other plotholders off? Sometimes just seeing bees ying busily in and out of a hive will turn sane people to wobbly jellies.
Screen the bees off behind either debris netting on posts, or behind a natural barrier, or behind a shed. Make sure you have good access still though. Stings are always a concern from non-beekeepers. As long as people aren’t walking directly in the ight path of the bees then there’s very little risk of them getting stung. Avoiding bananas and beer whilst up close to the bees is also recommended.
Swarming is the time when con ict will happen. A queen cell can be easily missed even by an experienced beekeeper and suddenly there’s a huge cloud of bees buzzing noisily about. They do stuff themselves with honey before leaving the hive though - who wouldn’t - and as such can’t bend to sting! Having done regular inspections, you can usually avoid swarming but you might owe a jar of honey to anyone who is inconvenienced by your bees.
Communal or on plots? If your site has room - an unloved corner perhaps - then you could make one apiary for the site and share the space with other beekeepers. This has its advantages for the rest
of the plotholders; the bees are all in one space and it’s easier to avoid seeing them. The downsides are that it may be a shady, damp corner which might not be good for the bees! Some local authorities such as York are encouraging shared apiary spaces. They’ve turned unused plots into apiaries, with beekeepers being responsible for maintaining the space. My own allotment here in Oldham has a communal apiary and provides training for new beekeepers.
You should ask permission, rstly from the committee, who will then run it by the membership of the site, and then check with the landlord of the site that it is ok to keep bees. It is reasonable for a committee to ask beekeepers to have public liability insurance and to have some experience of working with bees, or the support of a mentor.
Diane Drinkwater
Cartmel Crescent Allotment Association, Oldham
North West Mentor Back on the Road
I wish to put on record my sincere thanks to the regional allotment members for their concern about my recent health problems. Your enquiries and cards were of great bene t on my road to recovery! Quite often on our allotment sites we hear of nothing but problems and unrest; we hear very little of all of the good things that happen within our allotment family but not in this case; your support has been gratefully received. I also want to express my appreciation to the executive members of the North West Counties region for taking over my responsibilities
both as Mentor and Chairman over that period. MANY, MANY, THANKS.
My inbox has now started to swell with emails from Councils and Allotment groups that still need our help in getting themselves organised thus protecting our allotments for the future. So yes, back on the road but a little slower.
Many thanks
Alan Hull
North West Mentor
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