Honey bees at Kilnsey Park!
Mr and Mrs Roberts, who own Kilnsey Park, are very concerned about the plight of the honey bee and in 2009 arranged for the construction of the Kilnsey Park honey bee observation house. Unfortunately the first Kilnsey Park honey bees didn’t survive the very severe winter and a new colony arrived in June 2010 to live in their new observation hive. We would like to thank Mike and Liz Joyce at Denholme Gate Honey for their support for our honey bee project. You can also buy their honey products in our farm shop!
When you follow the Kilnsey Trail you’ll be able to visit the observation house and see the literature which explains about the life of the honey bee. You’ll also see the glass sided observation hive in which you will see the honey bees at work. Try and pick out the Queen Bee. She is marked with a spot of paint to make it easier to identify her and the colour tells us in what year she was born. You’ll also be able to see the eggs, larvae, pollen, worker bees, drones and honey.
The bees have a special tube through which they enter and leave the observation hive. Watch them coming and going for a few minutes!
If you know that you have a known allergy to bees we suggest that you avoid the honey bee observation area.
Why the concern about honey bees?
Bees are responsible for one third of our food supply in UK - that’s about 70 crops which are dependent on, or benefit from, visits from bees. We also need to remember that bees pollinate the flowers of many plants which become part of the feed of farm animals. The economic value of bees (judged on the crops they pollinate) has been estimated at over £200 million per year.
But bees are in grave danger and there is huge concern at their decreasing numbers. There is a worry because modern farming practices are disturbing the bees’ natural habitat; the honeybee is under attack from the varroa mite and there is great fear of the alarming phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, or “CCD" which is sweeping the USA. When a hive experiences CCD, the honey bees mysteriously desert their hive and die.
