When a rogue swarm of bees descended on the Ace of Spades roundabout in May, the lives and behaviour of the stripy honey-makers became something of a hot topic at the Surrey Comet. Reporter Rachael Burford wanted to find out more, and duly contacted New Malden’s only bee farmer for a quick apiary lesson.

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Despite being in close proximity to almost 200,000 bees not being my perfect idea of fun, I am spending a morning with New Malden’s only bee farmer – Hayden Sallah. Sallah is an extremely smiley man who knows everything there is to know about bees.

He started collecting honey hives in 2012, but has had an interest in the insects since he was a child. He now has nine hives at the spot in Epsom I am visiting today, another 15 in Surrey and two in his back garden.

His biggest hives have 20,000 bees in them while his smallest houses 5,000. Sallah harvests his own honey that he sells at the New Malden farmers’ market.

But with each bee only producing about half a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, he says he’s not going to become a millionaire from his bee farm anytime soon. Sallah says: “If you want to get rich don’t become a bee farmer.

“It is a pretty tough job. They require a lot of time and maintenance. I have to spend at least one full day a week with my hives; I’ll get here early in the morning and not leave until sunset.

“Bees eat the honey they make so you have to leave some back for them, especially in the winter when they can’t collect pollen.”

As we get suited up, Sallah gives me some tips about what to do if the bees “get angry”.

He says: “There is not a lot you can do except walk away slowly.

“They don’t sting unless they think you’re a threat to the colony. I’ll be able to tell if they’re getting angry.

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The humming noise when Sallah opens one is hypnotic and you can see rows and rows of perfectly formed wax hexagons where the bees make and store their honey.

The consistency, colour and taste of honey all depends on the pollen the bees bring back to the hive.

Sallah’s bees pollinate the nearby orchard and lavender plantation, although he tells me they will travel about five miles from the apiary to find pollen if there is none nearby.

Sallah picks out each block of the hive to reveal all the bees cleaning their home and making honey.

He gently scrapes away excess wax to help them along.

It is relaxing in a way that being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of stinging creatures should not be.

He says: “It is addictive. You start with one hive and then you just want more.”

“The weather is nice so they should be in a good mood.”

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He does not fill me with a huge amount of confidence when I have some trouble doing up my bee suit and he tells me “they can probably still sting you through the suit if they get really angry”.

As we are looking at the hive, Sallah notices a rogue swarm has wrapped itself around a nearby tree.

Excitedly, he goes in for a closer look.

He says: ”Because they don’t have anything to protect, a swarm is almost completely harmless, they won’t sting.

“If a swarm doesn’t find a beekeeper in seven days they will die.”

Sallah will keep these new bees, but separately from the bees at the apiary we are currently at.

He will first have to check them for the range of diseases that are sweeping through the bee world and wiping out their populations.

If they are healthy, they will add to his growing beehive collection. He says: “I’m going to get them down and put them in a box. I probably wouldn’t even have to wear a suit when moving them.

“I would be 90 per cent confident not even wearing a suit. I’m going to get a ladder.”

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Hive Talking: 

  • There are three types of bee in the honey bee hive – workers, drones and the queen.
     
  • When a female is born she starts off as a cleaner. They then move up to nurse duties, which include feeding older larvae. They then move up to be builders who produce wax and build comb. After that they complete hive guard duty and become gatherers who fly from the hives to pollinate plants and collect pollen and water.
     
  • Male bees (drones) do no work at all. Their only job is to mate with the queen. She mates only once and holds sufficient sperm from the male to lay eggs for her lifespan. The male bee either dies during this process or is evicted by the workers in early autumn and dies.
     
  • Queen bees lay eggs 24 hours a day. This can be up to 2,000 eggs a day – more than her own body weight.
     
  • The queen can live for up to five years while a worker’s life span is about four weeks.
     
  • If bees were to earn minimum wage, each regular sized jar of honey would cost about £110,000.
     
  • Humans have been farming bees for 4,000 years.