In two months’ time Herm honey may be for sale thanks to beekeeper Gavin Hyde. (0782601)
IN AS little as two months’ time, visitors will be able to buy real Herm honey.
Herm resident Gavin Hyde is a third-generation beekeeper and on moving to the island 18 months ago was very interested in keeping bees here and producing honey.
‘I have grown up around bees and have kept my own since I got my first home at the age of 22,’ said Gavin. ‘I have in the past run up to 30 colonies at a time, and I still have many hives in the UK which are run by friends.’
On moving to Herm last year Gavin was disappointed to find that because of disease control he was unable to bring his bees or any of his equipment into the Bailiwick.
Now, finally, Gavin has been able to obtain two hives from Guernsey and begin keeping Herm bees.
They are set up under the shade of a huge oak tree in Garden Field, behind the gardeners’ greenhouses, and are part of the island’s Floral Guernsey projects.
Each hive contains between 35 and 50,000 bees, and is continually growing. The queen lays up to 2,000 eggs a day.
As new bees hatch, the hives must be made bigger to accommodate the larger colony and to make sure there are enough frames and comb to store honey in.
The hives must be checked every nine days and any new queens removed. If a new queen is allowed to stay, the old one, feeling usurped, goes off with half the colony and everything must be built up again with the new queen, which delays the whole process.
The bees arrived three weeks ago and seem happy in their new homes.
‘Bees generally need time to acclimatise to new surroundings,’ explained Gavin, ‘but within three hours of arriving on Herm they were already out collecting pollen, so they settled very quickly.’
After the original investment is covered, any proceeds from the honey will go towards expanding and buying more hives.
‘Guernsey bees are very good quality,’ said Gavin. ‘All the UK bees are dying out because of pesticides, but here there are no pesticides and they have a very clean environment to live in. We are very grateful to the Guernsey Beekeepers’ Association, particularly Jeanine Tanquerel, for providing the first two stocks of bees for our hives.’
The labels for the Herm honey will be designed by the island children.
Article posted on 5th June, 2009 - 10.00am
Most Commented: