By RUTH LOGNONNE ruth.lognonne@hexham-courant.co.uk

Published at 09:41, Friday, 12 March 2010

IT seems the Hexham Beekeepers’ Association has a pot of money as well as a pot of honey to gloat over.

Popular hobby: Mark Prichard, from Whitfield, with one of his beehives.

For the insect enthusiasts have received just short of £500 from the Waitrose Community Matters chest to step up their training of new beekeepers across the area.

The Minsteracres Estate has given the association a plot of land to build bee hives where more seasoned members can run courses for rookie beekeepers.

The offer comes at a pivotal point in the Hexham beekeepers’ history.

Since the 1960s, membership has remained steady, but in 2009 the club doubled in size.

Mark Prichard, who began keeping bees in 1979, has apiaries – or hives – spread right across the Tyne Valley.

He said in the past year the association in Hexham had grown more than any other in the UK.

“We had our usual introduction to beekeeping at the cricket club in Hexham the other week,” he said. “Usually we get half a dozen people turn up but this time we had 60 people interested.

“Now that our membership has doubled, there is a body of new beekeepers who need help, advice and training.

“Most of us are very experienced, having kept bees for as long as 50 years.”

In recent years, feral honeybees have become increasingly scarce.

The honeybees’ decline, which is affecting domesticated and wild bee populations around the world, is mostly the result of diseases spread as a result of mites and other parasites as well as the spraying of crops with pesticides.

The Minsteracres Estate is determined to do its bit to ensure the honeybee’s survival by planting wild flowers, favoured by the insect, in land stretching from Riding Mill to the Derwent Reservoir.

“It’s important that bees get the right food to stay healthy and survive the winter months,” said Mr Prichard. “Traditional British trees contain pollen but it’s the nectar that keeps the bee alive. Nobody is planting sycamore or lime trees anymore which is exactly what they need.

“If you’re not a beekeeper, it’s hard to know what’s best for them.”

As well as giving the Hexham Beekeepers’ Association a plot of land on which to build their apiary, the estate is planting hedgerows across fields for the bees to feed from and take shelter.

“Bees are not very aerodynamic so they need the hedges as wind barriers,” said Mr Prichard. “There’s also an abundance of wild flowers that grow on them.”

The Hexham Beekeepers’ Association would particularly like to thank Basil Waller, from Bellingham, for his contribution of £300 to the beehives at Minsteracres.

Mr Waller started keeping bees in 1933, at the tender age of 10, when an old lady gave him two straw skeps to get started. He has been keeping bees for 77 years and at times had well over 150 hives.

Mr Prichard said: “Basil would like to put something on the table to help future generations discover the pleasure, satisfaction and good fun that he was lucky enough to enjoy.

“There’s been a huge resurgence in beekeeping in this area.

“ We would like to thank Waitrose and the people of Hexham who put their green token in our bucket.

“We still have a long way to go, but this is a very good start.”

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk