There’s a buzz in the air at South Hill Park! For decades, the mansion has had several colonies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) living in the roof and each year, they have often been seen swarming onto the surround trees, walls and fences. As we are all aware, bees as a species are in need of protection as they are vital to our existence, so anything we can do to assist them, whether it’s planting for bees, eliminating pesticide use or providing shelter in our gardens is highly important. Honeybees are also affected by a Varroa destructor mite that can cause significant losses to colonies worldwide and intervention is often required by beekeepers to control the levels of the mite to prevent this. The South Hill Park bees are very special as their behaviour indicates that they show a resistance to the Varroa mite as they live year on year, unaided by any outside involvement.
This year with our hot early spring, South Hill Park has seen a larger than normal number of swarms. One of our Heritage Parks Gardening team Clare is also a beekeeper and has been coordinating these swarms with the Wokingham & District Beekeepers Association, who have been valiantly collecting and distributing the swarms to fellow beekeepers. The team at South Hill Park are really keen to do everything they can to help the bees thrive at the mansion and with this in mind, we have relocated one of the swarms to a hive in a sheltered area on the roof of the mansion! Clare will monitor this hive going forward and hopefully develop other colonies to expand the healthy gene of the Varroa resistant honeybees across the wider area to ensure honeybees in Berkshire can thrive well into the future. The hive at South Hill Park is called ‘Foxglove’ as they were flowering when the colony was rehomed and the Queen Bee who resides over the hive has been named ‘Paula’ to honour our longest serving member of staff! Further hive updates to follow…
You can find the Wokingham & District Beekeepers Association at the upcoming Festival of Food and Music and they will be available to chat about all the South Hill Park swarms, together with selling delicious local honey!
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