An unbelievable privilege to visit another world!
In 2024 we were approached by Karl (army veteran and expert beekeeper) who was seeking support to establish an altruistic therapeutic, eco-educational, environmentally enhancing Bee Apiary in Maghull, that we were delighted to facilitate with remarkable support from the equally kind and altruistic Parkhaven Trust who provided a space within their community allotment area, in January 2025, much to the delight of the other allotmenteers.
In late August, I was kindly invited to Karl’s impressively developing Bee Apiary and was quickly astounded and mesmerised by the fascinating world I had entered with Karl’s expert guidance.
On arrival, I was greeted by Karl and could instantly see many of his virtues echoed in the allotment with a calm, open, organised, welcoming environment. In front of the netted apiary a small tidy shed had been erected for storage and decorated with some army motifs. A beautiful flower area with seating around a focal water fountain, close to a bee water station.
We got dressed in the protective beekeeping clothing with reassuring instructions about what we were going to do and how best to safely behave around bees.
I stood a metre away, whilst Karl slowly dissembled a hive, using smoke not to make the bees docile but to trigger the sense of fire, provoking a retreat to a defence of the Queen. An A4 sized honeycomb slide was raised for inspection, revealing approximately 500 bees all busily and intricately working on different tasks in the most claustrophobic proximity and seemingly undistracted to produce wax and honey. Whilst the by-product of this process can involve travelling miles away crucially pollinating plants to sustain life on our fragile planet.
There are many reasons to regularly inspect the hive every seven days, for bee health and safety, but for a beekeeper it is important to ensure that there is only one Queen identified with an indelible ink dot. Because if the Queen has mated with a male drone, and egg can hatch within eight days resulting in another Queen who can then fly away to create another hive, taking half the hive with her! Hence, the importance of ensuring one Queen, removing the egg and in the worst-case scenario dummy hives have been created on the perimeter to prevent the loss. Fascinatingly, the males function to eat, procreate in mid-flight and then die! Finally, among the many interesting insights, future Parkhaven honey will have a unique taste as the blend can vary remarkably depending on the local flora and fauna.
Almost like the inviting, captivating, entertaining, intimacy of a David Attenborough documentary Karl answered every question and provided rare insights into a hidden sophisticated civilisation that is intimately linked to the survival of humanity no less!
Karl is hoping to be in full production from April 2026 onwards (12 hives 50,000 bees), to enable him to achieve his altruistic aspirations by giving back to others, the life-saving support he received following unimaginable challenges. Karl hopes to create a modest income to give to veteran charities but ultimately wants to encourage veterans to join him to provide therapeutic sanctuary to overcome personal challenges.
It was an enchanting and mindful experience: the warm sun was caressing, the trees rustled gently, enhanced by birdsong and the gentle buzzing of bees, alongside the calming and enthralling storytelling from Karl. The activity had been rare and captivating with the occasional inquisitive bee landing on my facemask (safely 1 foot away from my face) providing another close-up experience.
As a retired psychotherapist, many therapeutic interventions now use mindfulness which involves using your five senses to focus only on the present to reduce/exclude past traumatic experiences or future disabling negative expectations/beliefs. Mindfulness can take significant time to develop effectively but I have to confess this wonderful experience on reflection really captivated me in the moment, hopefully providing others with respite and recovery by following in Karl’s experienced footsteps.
Karl’s Aim is to create an Apiary where ex service personnel and their families can come meet likeminded people and learn new skills in a safe environment.
Some people will just want a chat and a cuppa and others will want to get more involved. Everyone will be able to escape their day to day worries for an hour or two a couple of days a week. Which I think will increase their sense of worth and improve their mental health.
Everyone will have the opportunity to learn;
- What bees are
- What makes a colony
- Pests and Diseases
- Treatments
- How to manage a colony
- Bee byproducts (honey, wax and royal jelly)
- Hive/Bee inspections
- Harvesting
- Selling
- Winter preparing and feeding
Full Background Story:
Learn more about Parkhaven: https://www.parkhaven.org.uk/
The British Beekeeping Association: https://www.bbka.org.uk/
Apiary & Education Video. https://youtu.be/IAtQQAiQwUI
All the Best
Dr Frank Sharp
FOMD
Together Making Maghull a better place to live.
More information. www.fomd.co.uk
Contact: admin@fomd.co.uk
#fomdcic #Maghull #Environment
Thank you to
- the local family friendly Saxon Tree Specialists for providing Karl with essential woodchip at the beginning of the project and more recently removing a dangerous overhanging branch for free whilst dangling over several hundred thousand bees! https://www.facebook.com/reel/515961041612358
- Karl for donating two Apiary experiences to our Rowlands Dell FOMD raffle which was drawn September with the winners eagerly anticipating their April experience.
