Olegs Kabanovs - Beekeeping in Lady Bay
Interview with Olegs Kabanovs, written by Andy Barrett
I went to visit Olegs Kabanovs at his home in Lady Bay to talk about beekeeping. Before we began I tasted honey flavoured by different plants the bees have been pollinating over the previous months.
It all tastes very distinctive, and the colour of each honey is so different …
Yes; the bees feast on different plants and flowers depending on what is growing when.
The lavender gives a lot of nectar which is why you see so many bees buzzing around it. Then there’s the apples, cherries, the white flowers of the acacia tree. There are a lot of linden trees here which they really like, and we’ll soon have the blackberries ready. The honey is completely different depending on where the bees are gathering their nectar; so the acacia is very creamy and has a very specific texture. There are lots of wildflowers in the gardens around here and the nectar from those produces more of what we normally expect from honey, with a less distinct taste. But the reason that I keep my garden wild is because I noticed that the bees seem to love the wild flowers, nettles and thistles.
You need to be aware of what is growing at different times of the year; when things are in flower. May is best for the apple trees and early June is the peak time for lavender. But every year the weather changes, every year things are blooming at different times. This year things are blooming earlier with this hot and sunny weather; last year the weather was very wet during the spring which wasn’t good for the bees at all and we didn’t we didn't have any spring honey. (Here is the Met Office’s ‘review of 2024: Multiple records broken in a year of mixed weather’)
Here is a useful list of ‘blossom-sequencing trees for bees’ from the Urban Bees website.
So how many beehives are there in our garden?
There are twenty-three beehives right now, of five or six different sizes. The smaller hives are for those bees that I’ve not had for long. The taller hives are those where the bees have become a strong family; and they grow quickly after spring. All the hives are wooden and most are made from cedar.
(Cedar has been used to make beehives for centuries. The Egyptians were known to use cedar for the construction of elaborate beehives, which they believed had spiritual significance. In ancient Greece beehives were lined with cedar shavings to repel pests and diseases, whilst also creating a pleasant aroma that encouraged bees to thrive.
Cedar has natural insulating properties, which help to regulate the temperature inside the beehive and natural insect-resistant properties, which helps to keep pests and other insects away from the beehive. It is also a sustainable resource that is grown and harvested responsibly.)
And how did all this start?
It was about four years ago through one of my building clients. His hobby is keeping bees, seven or eight hives at a time, and he was always showing me around them. He could see how interested I was and gave me one of his hives at the end of the season, full of bees, which I still have. Then I started to do my research, because it’s what inside the hives that counts. I watched a lot of videos and read a lot of books. It takes time to learn and I’ve spent a lot of money but now my garden is full of hives. I absolutely love beekeeping; it’s completely changed my life.
I spend a lot of time with the bees during the summer and I’m now at the point where I can get a little bit of my financial investment back from selling the honey at a farmers’ market; but that has taken me four years. And you never know what kind of season you’re going to have. But whatever money I get I invest in more hives, more tools, and in upgrading my equipment. I’m not going to be able to make a living doing this.
What equipment do you need?
The hives of course; and the boxes that allow you to build a hive up when it needs more space. I build all the roofs for the hives myself. Most hives now are what are called National Hives (rather than WBC hives, although these are still used) and you can buy them assembled or in flat packs. They can be very expensive so it’s best to look during the winter sales. (Olegs recommends looking at https://bees-online.co.uk/)
Then there are the frames in which the bees will build the honeycomb and store their honey (‘honey frames’); or where the queen bee is housed, lays her eggs, and the young bees are raised (‘brood frames’). For each box that I add to a beehive I need ten frames, so that can quickly add up in terms of cost. And of course, you need the bees and unless you’re planning to catch a swarm (which I wouldn’t recommend) you can buy those. Sometimes they can come with the hive or you might buy what is called a Nucleus Box which contains a small colony of bees – which is what we call the population of the bees in the hive – with the queen, worker and drone bees, and some frames and honeycomb.
I have an extractor for my honey, which works as a centrifuge and as it turns around the honey gets sucked out. Now that I’m producing a lot more, I’ve treated myself to a very expensive automatic one that I’ve yet to use, rather than a manual extractor. Then there are the protective clothes of course; the gloves and veil, and a smoker which calms the bees so you can get into the hive. The smoke masks the bees’ sense of smell and stops them sending intruder alarm signals to each other. It also tricks them into thinking there is a forest fire, so they eat as much honey as they can in preparation for starting a new home somewhere else, which also calms them.
What’s the life cycle of a bee, and how does the colony operate?
During the spring and summer, the worker bees live for about one month, maybe forty days. They’re working themselves to the limit, whereas in the winter they don't fly around or use their bodies as much and they live longer. Bees don’t hibernate though; they keep active and their main job is to protect the queen until spring when she will start laying eggs again. This means that when it gets very cold (about 55 degrees), the bees will begin to cluster around the queen and flap their wings to increase the hive temperature (to about 96 degrees). The bees also rotate the duty of being outside the hive so that they all have a chance to stay warm. Bees still need to eat in the winter so you have to make sure you have honey for them and I always keep some frames of honey in the freezer.
As the days start to become longer in late winter/early spring the queen will begin to lay eggs and the colony will start to rear new brood. When the nectar and pollen is available to the bees from the early spring flowers, the egg laying by the queen becomes non-stop, hundreds and hundreds of eggs. When an egg hatches it takes about three weeks for the bee to grow and to start their working life inside the colony. Everyone has a responsibility and a specific job. First, they start their lives as nursemaids, caring for the brood and feeding the younger bees. Then they have responsibility for cleaning inside the hive.
As the bees grow they start to venture outside of the hive to bring in the pollen or to fetch water; whilst some work as bee guards protecting the entrance to their hives. You don’t want bees from other hives coming in to rob the honey but it can happen. If I go into a hive, make a mess, and spill the honey other bees are going to smell it and try to rob that hive. It happened to me once, which is why I try not to do any jobs during the day. If anything happens at the end of the day more bees are already inside. And during the night the bees can organize everything inside and tidy up. You can easily ruin your hive.
The bees decide what to do to keep everything working. It's like a big family with everyone having their own role. Less than half of the colony are outside flying around, the rest are staying inside doing the housework. There are plenty of things to be done and it is split instinctively between everyone. It is unbelievable. Week after week when you open the hives it is completely different in there as the bees change and adapt everything to keep things working smoothly.
Do bees work to a set pattern during the day?
They start at sunrise. A lot of their work is producing honey, but when it’s as hot as it is now they have to spend a lot more effort getting water into the hive. Just like us they need water and food and they carry it through their stomachs to hydrate the others, especially the queen. I'm still learning about how incredible they are.
So how do bees make honey?
They collect the nectar and bring it back to the hive. And this is where the frames are so
important because it’s in these where they build the wax honeycomb structure, although they
can also build it in other spaces in the hive as well.
It's an incredibly strong design, incredible architecture, almost like it’s been made by a computer. This is where the honey is stored to provide food for the colony and after they’ve filled the honeycomb they cap it with a thin layer of wax which protects the honey from bacteria to make sure that it stays fresh, with no moisture or air getting inside. If I take the frames out and extract the honey then that means the bees keep working, they keep making honey. If the frames full of honey were left in the hive the bees wouldn’t work as much. As it’s still a growing family at this point, they would be more likely to want to fly away; to swarm and start a new hive somewhere else. So, it’s important that you keep them busy.
How much honey is produced when one of these frames is filled?
They can weigh a lot; around two to two and a half kilogrammes, which fills around five jars (400 grams). When the bees are really working hard and all the conditions are fine it can take as little as two or three days to fill a frame; and the large hives have ten or more frames in them.
When I take the frames out I freeze some for the winter and fill the fridge in case of emergencies; if for some reason the bees can’t make honey and the colony is in danger of collapsing without food. The rest I keep for myself. I uncap the honey with a knife, to take the protective wax layer away, and then I extract the honey in the extraction machine. The most important thing is that the machine doesn’t destroy the honeycomb structure so that when the frames are put back in the bees can just start filling it with honey straight away.
How many bees are in a hive?
It’s around 30,000, maybe 50,000 in a bigger one. For the first two years I was buying the
bees from other beekeepers. It takes time to look after your hives properly and sometimes people realise they can no longer do it. Then I discovered I could catch swarms rather than buying bees, especially if there are any in the neighbourhood. Now if anyone nearby notices swarming bees then I go and collect them and put them in a hive
Why do bees swarm, and what does that look like when it happens?
It’s part of the natural life cycle of bees. They usually swarm in the spring when the population of the colony inside the hive starts to increase. They start to run out of space, and because there is food available elsewhere they know they can make a new home. The queen bee can also lose her power, because she is making pheromones that keep the entire hive together. If there are too many bees in the hive then maybe not all of the bees can sense the pheromones and when that happens bees will produce queen cells to make a new queen and start a new family, a new colony, in a new home. Which means they will swarm. The desire to swarm is a sign that the colony is healthy and thriving. But you don’t want your bees to swarm and I don’t want my neighbours to be looking up at fifty thousand bees, so you need to make sure that the hive isn’t over populated, which might mean splitting a colony; and that it’s also well ventilated, because if it’s too hot inside the hive the colony might want to find another home. If you see a lot more bees flying around the entrance to the hive they may be preparing to leave.
I make sure that the bees are always busy working, that they always have enough space by adding an extra box on top of the hive, which is why these hives are all different sizes. If I can see that the colony are making a new queen cell, which means they are thinking about starting a new family and leaving the hive, I will split the colony and put some of the bees into a new hive to start their new family there; as long as you make sure that the old queen stays in the original hive.
When the bees do swarm they are all wrapped up together and it looks something like a ball. Hopefully they won’t be too hidden away or too high up, and it’s usually reasonably easy to find them and then capture them with my trap box. I started by putting out some adverts locally and now I get calls from all over Nottingham so if anyone has a ball of bees in their garden they should let me know. Most of the hives here have now been filled with bees in that way, or by attracting bees which you can do by putting honey into empty hives. I always have three hives ready for bees to move into; you always need to be prepared.
Here is a short film ‘What is a swarm of bees?’
Other than what you’ve already told us what does the job of looking after bees involve?
You need to keep an eye on everything that is happening. Even the smell, when you open up a hive, is something you need to be aware of. If it smells differently it might be because the bees are behaving differently. But you also don't want to be looking inside them too much; you don’t want to keep bothering the bees. You could accidently kill the queen; you could easily squeeze her when you pick up a frame. The colony could make an emergency queen but that might not happen and then it wouldn’t take long for the colony to die. And you really want to try and stop bees swarming, especially within an urban environment, so you are always making sure there is no overcrowding and that the frames have enough room for brood and honey storage.
What happens when the bees die?
They know they're going to die, and they leave the hive to die. Sometimes, of course, they die inside and the bees that are cleaning throw them out. The queen can basically last for ever. Because if something has happened to the old queen the bees will make a new one. It is like a very quiet change that you're not even going to notice. If the colony senses something is wrong with her they can build a new queen and they will kill the old queen. You can see when they have made a queen cell; they are about an inch long and are shaped like a peanut shell.
How does all this work with the neighbours?
I'm very, very lucky. I've got amazing neighbours and at the moment I'm controlling the bees well. They're not messing around, they're not angry. If I've got angry bees, I just try to move them away from here, to some land where I have some other hives, to sort out the problems instead of trying to find the reason here. If they're angry, there's something wrong with the family, which usually means there is a need for a new queen, or a need to split a colony. Once a colony has a new queen the behaviour quickly changes.
This is my garden; I need to be able to walk through here whenever I need and do whatever I want. Generally the bees are not going to be stingy unless one gets stuck on you and starts panicking; I’ve not been stung many times for no reason. If there’s a storm coming they sense the change in the atmospheric pressure around two days before; you can hear they are changing by the noise they make and it’s better you don't check them at that time. Don't go there, they're going to attack you; they’re very angry.
I’ve got two young children who play in the garden, not down amongst the hives but close by. My daughter is ten now and is learning about the bees and helps me sell the honey at the Lady Bay and West Bridgford markets.
The Farmers’ Market on Central Avenue is every 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month from 8.30am to 1.30pm. You can see when the next market is on in Lady Bay here.
Is the increasingly volatile climate an issue?
Yes. If it’s really wet like last spring the bees eat all the honey they produce, because the queen is laying eggs and the colony needs a lot of food, and there isn’t enough nectar to replenish their food stores. Some beekeepers think that if they get through the winter everything is fine. But the hardest part is spring, when the queen starts laying the eggs and the hive needs plenty of food; and to get plenty of food they need to have pollen. Last season it started very well; the hives were full of honey. And then the weather changed, there was three weeks of rain and so I didn’t extract the honey. When I opened the hives when the rain had stopped the frames were empty. If I had taken that honey away the bees would have died.
The hot weather is also a challenge for the colony but the good thing here is that lots of people have ponds so I know they can get enough water; and we’re not far from the canal. Bees will fly up to six miles if they have to but if they’ve got everything they need they won’t move very far. But when it is very hot you will lose a lot of nectar gathering, maybe two thirds, as more bees have to work on ventilating the inside of the hive which they do with their wings like little air conditioners.
My hives have an open mesh floor at the bottom so that air can flow through and it’s ventilated. But you can’t just move the hives so if they’re not being shaded by plants or trees and are getting really hot that is difficult for them. Bees learn where to fly, it’s all been mapped out; if their hive was in a tree or a mountain it wouldn’t move. You can move the hives a little, bit by bit, maybe 50cm a day; but it’s better if you want to move a hive to take it somewhere far away, let the bees fly around for one week there and then bring them back to their new location.
Right now the hives that are in the shade under the apple trees are the lucky ones, and they can also feast on the apples. But bees also need the heat and so you do want the hives to get the sun, especially in the autumn.
And in the winter?
They're just very calm; they're very quiet. They sit in a small ball, about 30 cm across, keeping themselves warm. I remove most of the boxes from the top of the hives so that they’re smaller and easier to keep warm. There’s honey in the frames that I have given them and they just sit there, these big balls that are slowly eating, just a very little amount during the cold weather. They don’t just survive through those months, they're also regenerating. They've been preparing from the late autumn to survive through the winter season.
How many bees are in this garden? And are there any problems with invasive species?
I would think there are over a million bees here. And I haven’t really had any problems with
other species apart from wasps, which can be very annoying. The late summer wasps can take over a beehive if the colony does not protect itself. The most dangerous threat is the Varroa mite which the bees can pick up from the bushes and flowers and which can destroy a hive. You can buy strips which kill the mites but they’re not cheap. Some strips use chemicals but I prefer the ones that contain Eucalyptus oil. I put them inside the roof of the hive at the end of the season when I’ve stopped extracted the honey. They give out a very strong smell which makes the bees shake; this throws off the Varroa mites which fall through the mesh floor.
There are many things that can destroy your hive. Wax moths can be a problem. If your colony is strong they will throw them out of the hive, but if not they can do a lot of damage. The moths lay their eggs inside the hive and when they hatch the larva tunnel through the honeycomb and burrow into the wood. During the winter, mould is a problem. The bees don't care about the cold; they care about moisture, ventilation, and food. If there is a lot of rain or the hive hasn’t got good ventilation, which is why I have mesh floors, then the moisture can enter and mould can take over just as it does in a house; only in a hive it is white mould. You have to keep your frames clean as well, after you’ve taken them from the hive and when the honey making season is over. If they’re sticky from the honey residue then you can get fungal growth on those.
When does the season end? And what are the best things to grow in your garden for the bees?
It depends on the weather but it’s usually in October. The ivy is the last thing that bees pollinate. If you want to help the bees then it’s all about choosing plants which have the highest nectar yield. Lavender is really good; it has a strong scent that bees can smell from miles away and releases a lot of nectar in the early morning. Blackberries are good as well but you get ten times more nectar from lavender. And linden trees are good nectar heavy plants.
If somebody in The Meadows was thinking of doing this could they just have one hive? And what advice would you give?
Two hives is better, because if something happens you can split the colony. The main thing is that you've got to do your research and put the work in. You've got to look after the bees and the hives and the colonies because they're vulnerable.
If you do want to keep bees then you also want nectar heavy plants in your garden but you’ll also find that everything grows better. If you’ve got tomatoes and cucumbers and you’ve got bees, the tomatoes and cucumbers will be bigger and better. When we were first living here there was very little growing in the garden; a few apples on the tree that were kind of inedible. Now it's like a cherry tree! Even my neighbours have noticed that they are getting a lot more flowers and fruit with all of this pollinating. So, you can tell your neighbours that they’re going to get better gardens. And of course, you need to make sure that you give them some honey!
There are many websites that provide information about beekeeping, and many sites where you can buy equipment and bees, but you may want to start with Becoming a Beekeeper | British Beekeepers Association.