Recent Events Continued

You can probably imagine how I felt, seeing my little apiary devoid of any vestige of bees and equipment.
Just silence where one would normally expect, even at this time of the year, to experience the sound of bees.
It was a mixture of shock and disbelief, and then the realisation that all my efforts over the last 18 months had also disappeared, refurbished hive parts, and some old but still in use equipment, and an old but complete Glen hive which I kept for nostalgic reasons. Glen hives were once very popular in Scotland, but progress had overtaken them and most hives now in use up here are known as Smith hives. Sad to see a piece of history go with the rest. I am very unlikely to be able to replace that..
The majority of my stocks are were kept in Smiths as are 90% of Scottish bees. These hives are easily constructed, use short lugged BS frames, and are much easier to transport to the heather in the season.

Because almost all Scottish hives are of the Smith design, my missing ones are likely to go un noticed amongst others.
I contacted the local Police Station to report the theft. They were somewhat bemused at first but they realised that the loss of the colonies was probably a crime and they publicised the details. Any news regarding bees soon gets picked up by the media and the police press release certainly had that effect. BBC Scotland news carried the story and local press agencies spread the news amongst the Scottish Press. Unfortunately this has not led to the return of the bees. I fear that they are now long gone. It is a sad fact that bee and hive theft is becoming a growing problem throughout the UK.

I said in part one of this blog, that we have many ways to reflect. Bad, puzzleing and annoying are well covered by the foregoing saga, but life goes on. Moments of kindness come when least expected.

Another good beekeeping friend who is soon to move away rang and said that he had a spare colony located in a wood about 20 miles from my home, "Would you like it to start you off again?".

A simple question offering a generous gift, restoring my faith in human nature. To you, Pat, I thank you for your moments of kindness.

I had to cut part 1 of this blog short because of pressing family commitments. I am slowly catching up now, but more happenings have occured, giving me more moments on which to reflect and to continue the theme of the first 2 paragraphs of part 1.

I shall update you later this week, when hopefully some sort of normallity will have returned to my life..

Recent Events

Many things in life can trigger in us, time to reflect.

You know the sort of thing - close escapes, moments of kindness, emotional trauma, unexplained happenings, unexpected encounters, disbelief in the actions of others etc.

Well, the past 14 or so days have presented me with a varied selection of ways to reflect. Good and bad, puzzling and obvious, annoying and gratifying.

Let me explain.

I have been a keeper of bees for almost as long as I can remember. sometimes with success, often with failure, but always with a sense of gratification that the bees exist, not only as part of the greater plan to help our survival on this fragile planet we call Earth, but also to add to the rich and varied life and wonderment of the human race.

I don`t morally own my bees any more than I own the thousands of acres of fabulous and bounteous Scottish countryside, over which they are free to fly at any time, any where they choose. I suppose that I may briefly own bees that I may buy commercially from the bee breeders, but surely, as soon as I hive the bees in one of my hives, the bees are free spirits and can just as easily merrily fly off, to what to them is a more attractive location. leaving me out of pocket and out of luck. I merely own the structures in which I hope that they will cluster and carry out their focused lives. If I am lucky, my clumsy attempts at husbandry do not cause them to decamp and in good years I can steal a proportion of their hard gotten gains - the honey crop.

I don`t own the land on which my apiaries stand either, but I refer to those small parcels of land, as my apiaries as a matter of course. My bee hives are there due to the goodwill and co-operation of enlightened land owners, who appreciate the benefit that bees will surely bring to the flora of the surrounding land and to the eventual mutual benefit of us all.

Bees have been at my Scottish Borders Apiary for around 20 years. I was asked if I would like to take over the site by a beekeeper from Edinburgh, who sadly, through the passage of time, family health problems and the high cost of fuel, was finding it difficult to find the time to tend to the bees. He was given the bees and equipment by another beekeeper who had sadly also been unable to devote enough time to the upkeep of the hives. Unfortunately, among the 20 or so individual bee hives only a few were deemed to be worth saving and restoring. most were not and were beyond any economic repair.

Ted, (not his real name) told me that he thought that several years had passed since the hives had received any serious attention, before he became aware of them, but a few colonies had survived and were worth saving. He tidied up the site and repaired and replaced some hives and they were starting to thrive .
Ted was experiencing difficulties finding time to devote to the bees, and happily accepted my offer to take over the apiary, hives and bees.
So here I was once again patron to bees. This time in the Scottish Borders. I spent time and some money in restoration and made a decision that during my first year with these bees I would assess their potential with a view to increasing stocks and building up the colonies with the aim of better honey production in the future.
New stands were made, frames rescued and fitted with fresh foundation. old equipment was removed and either made serviceable, renewed or discarded, and the bees once again responded and gathered quite large quantities of honey.
Came the time this autumn to assess the situation in the apiary, to see if any colonies needed further help to go through the winter, so I paid a visit to the apiary.
Nothing.
No Bees, no hives, no stands, just empty spaces, a small pile of black ash, some scrap hive parts and the obligatory odd bricks that seem to accumulate in almost every apiary.
The whole caboodle had been removed.
Nothing left at all.
Everything, lock stock and barrel had gone!

More to follow on this theme as soon as I can