Call to arms for Huddersfield’s beekeepers
Aug 13 2010 by Kevin Core, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Call to arms for Huddersfield’s beekeepers
TO MANY they are summer pests, but to Paul Webley they are fascinating.
And the Slaithwaite 67-year-old is not alone in his interest in bees: Huddersfield and District Beekeepers Association has been inundated by a glut of inquiries from prospective apiarists.
Recent stories about the alarming decline in the number of bees in the UK have caused concern, with some scientists claiming that without the insects’ crucial role in pollination, a third of the crops we rely on could be lost.
Working with fellow beekeeper Yvonne Kilvington, Paul will be hosting a special evening not only introducing the honey bee, but how to get started in the ancient art.
Paul said: “I first got involved in 1962 when I was training to teach rural studies.
“I spent 25 years at Colne Valley High School in the school farm. It got closed by the head in the ‘90s which was sad because it’s the kind of thing that young people increasingly have to understand.
“The appeal for me is the scale. Like ants and termites it’s a super organism with around 20,000 to 60,000 in a hive all acting as one.”
Paul explained that the bees divide into male drones and the females consisting of the queen and the workers.
It’s a classic case of the women doing all the work – but they’re the only ones that sting.
It can be a hard life for the male as once the breeding is over with they are not needed in winter, and are bullied, stung out of the hive or starved to death.
Paul said: “To get started you’re probably looking at a complete hive costing £350 and then the equipment. You get the bees through one of the big suppliers like Thorne’s in Lincolnshire.
“You need to find somewhere suitable either at the bottom of a big back garden and you need to get the right bees if there are people around so they are not too aggressive.
“I’ve been stung seven or eight times and that’s only because they’ve got under the mask.
