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Bee-keepers in North Wales are on their guard after a criminal ‘sting’ saw a million bees stolen in nearby Shropshire.
An epidemic of bee-rustling in neighbouring counties of England recently culminated in a major theft from a farm near Telford amid rumours of a lucrative black market in stolen hives.
But bee-keeping is on the increase despite crime, disease and cold weather, according to David Hards, Chairman of the South Clwyd Beekeepers Association who will be promoting the cause of the honeybee at The Gardening Show, Llangollen, next month and hoping to recruit new members.
He said: “More and more people are getting interested in keeping bees, not only for producing their own honey but also to improve the environment; so perhaps all the doom and gloom about the future of bees is having a good effect.
“We will be at the show, hoping to recruit new people to the cause and offering courses in bee-keeping as well as advice on how to encourage bees into your garden.
“Not everyone wants to be a bee-keeper most people enjoy the honey bees buzzing among their flowers.”
Gardening Show Director Stephen Green is delighted to have the bee-keepers at the show which takes place over the weekend of June 6 and 7 at the Royal International Pavilion in Llangollen.
He said: “There is obviously a very real link between gardens and bees – we rely on bees and other insects to pollinate our flowers and to ensure a good harvest of vegetables and fruit.
“Anything that’s bad for bees is also bad for gardeners and so we’re really pleased the South Clwyd Bee-keepers will be at the show and we hope they enlist plenty of new recruits – certainly bees are fascinating creatures.”
And increasingly valuable, according to David Hards who said: “Thieves are opportunists but to pinch a hive and transport it you would have to know what you were doing so there must be some bad apples in the world of bee-keeping.”
He checks his own hives regularly but believes bad weather and disease remain much bigger threats to small-scale bee-keepers than organised rustling.
He said: “A major problem is the varroa mite and that is true for bee-keepers, large and small.
“Over here the other main concern is the weather after two very cold, wet summers which has weakened the bees and made them more susceptible to the varroa mite.
“In a good year an average hive will produce 90lbs of honey but the last couple of years have been very poor, cold and damp, so we’re looking forward to a fine summer and a bumper harvest this year.”
David and his wife, Margaret, sell the honey from their home at Llangynhafal, near Ruthin, along with jam, eggs and other produce and plants.
The couple joined the South Clwyd Bee-keepers six years ago and took advantage of the courses they run at Llysfasi College of Agriculture in the Vale of Clwyd and they’ve been hooked ever since.
He added: “Bees are fascinating creatures, very efficient and very ruthless. They’ve been on this earth for millions of years, a lot longer than us.
“The average colony has 40,000 bees, 39,000 of them female workers and one queen who is basically an egg-laying machine and the rest are males, the drones, who are just there to mate with the queens.
“Around October the workers throw out the drones to die. They’ve done their job and are now just useless mouths to feed. Girl power rules in the hive!
“When the old queen can no longer lay enough eggs or in preparation for swarming, the workers will raise new queens in specially constructed queen cells.
”When the first new queen hatches she will sting to death any potential rivals in their cells – it’s like the Borgias or the Tudors really, very ruthless, but it works for bees.”
The soap opera of life at the court of Queen Bee will be on display at the bee-keepers’ stand at the Gardening Show with a special glass fronted observation hive.
They will also have historic bee-keeping equipment on display and a presentation on the history of bee-keeping. For more information on them go to www.scbeekeepers.co.uk
“It goes back to ancient Babylon and Egypt,” said David: “Honey is antiseptic and soldiers would use leeches to cean a wound and honey to dress it.
“You do get stung a lot but you wear the right gear and you do get used to it – after all, we’re robbers ourselves taking the honey the bees have made.”
And there will be plenty of other attractions at what is being dubbed the biggest Garden Party in North Wales which this year will be opened by down to earth BBC One Show gardening expert Christine Walkden.
It will also feature starring roles for a host of winners from the Chelsea Flower Show, including the legend of the vegetable patch, Anglesey’s Medwyn Williams MBE, the only person to have won ten consecutive Chelsea Flower Show golds and who with his wife, Gwenda, has agreed to be a Patron of the Show.
Other big names from the gardening world include Tatton Park Head Gardener Sam Youd, Erddig Head Gardener Glyn Smyth and broadcaster Nigel Snow.
And Medwyn won’t be the only Chelsea gold medallist on show with the likes of Roualyn Fuchsias and Dibleys Nurseries staging displays.
From the world of garden design there is the innovative Emily Reddy of Reddy Landscapes while the show’s organisers are keen to attract gardeners of all ages and so over 30 schools have entered a planting competition and there will be a range of activities for children in the Environment Village.
There will also be cookery demonstrations and tips from North Wales’s very own celebrity chef, Graham Tinsley MBE, the manager of the Welsh Culinary Team and fresh from ITV’s hit ‘Taste The Nation’ who will be recreating recipes from the TV show.
The fine art and sculpture exhibition has grown in size and will once again feature the magical work of micro sculptor Willard Wigan with some of his latest pieces.
An improved café area gives more catering options and there is more live music too.
Stephen Green said: “My background is in gardening and getting people involved, not lecturing them but showing them how to do things, getting them hands-on.
“We’ve gone for a structured quality educational approach and our exhibitors are hand-picked for being consumer friendly, knowledgeable and high quality and it seems to have worked.”

The Gardening Show, at the Royal International Pavilion, Llangollen, on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7, with free parking, free show programme and under 16s free admission when accompanied by an adult, £8 on the gate, £7 concessions or book tickets on line and save a massive 25% at www.thegardeningshow.co.uk