17 Apr YouTube channel launches for Barwell’s bees

If you’re curious about Barwell’s resident bees and what they’re up to, they now have their own dedicated YouTube channel to provide updates on their progress. Click here to watch.

Mark Gale from BeesMAX, the not-for-profit company dedicated to reversing the decline of the UK bee population, set up the channel along with a new website: www.treebeerescue.org which takes a wider approach to supporting bees in general.

Mark has been watching closely over the Barwell Apiary after installing it at the park at the end of the last year. He rescued the bees from Epsom after the dead tree they’d been living in had to be felled. At the time of this article’s publication, they were still in hibernation due to the cold, damp spring weather.

Mark’s new website includes a blog comparing wild tree bee colonies with traditional beekeeper beehives. The post discusses management techniques, and the ways in which the modern beekeeper’s beehive is different and in some ways detrimental, to their wild and free-living relatives.

For example, you might see clusters of dead rescued bees on the ground near a colony.

Mark said: “Where there’s a tree bee colony living a few meters up the tree trunk in an old woodpecker’s nest, you would never really look at the base of the tree to see if there are any bees lying there. Dead bees being ousted from the nest would normally be blown away in the wind as they are removed [by other bees as they clean the hive]. Elderly bees would try to make their last flight away from the entrance.

“Thus, it is only the artificial environment of a beekeeper’s colony, close to the ground with vastly more numbers of bees in it, where you will get a chance to notice what appears to be a higher death rate in the front of the hive.”

Visit the website to read more.