Welcoming Bees: The Old Mushroom Farm's New Apiary

Bees seem to love it here at The Old Mushroom Farm- they are currently feasting on the aloes in bloom. We've built an apiary to support these fascinating pollinators- encouraging them to build their hives out of harm's way.

The African Honeybee is native to southern Africa and is a social insect- living in large, well-organised family groups. They feed on pollen and nectar of flowering plants, while at the same time acting as pollinators- transferring pollen from flower to flower- essential to the reproduction of flowering plants. Essentially, without bees there would be no food! So, we welcome bees here at the Old Mushroom Farm.

The bees build hives in these cleverly designed boxes, with slatted frames from which honey can be extracted without devastating the hive. The bee boxes at The Old Mushroom Farm were originally placed in the old buildings where the Boutique Apartments are now. They were moved when building started in 2023. Interestingly, bees get disorientated if you move their hives, but if you move them really far away (+- 1km) they seem to ‘reset’ and find their way back to their box instead of the old position on the map.

So, the boxes were moved to Nick and Mandy’s farm in the Dargle when building began on the Boutique apartments. And now, moved back to The Old Mushroom Farm, to their lovely new apiary- a sufficient distance away to ‘reset’ their internal compasses.

The Old Mushroom Farm Apiary is positioned on a sunny slope right next to the aloe garden and orchard- so there are plenty of food sources around for the bees. An interesting thing we learned from Don, a local beekeeper with a wealth of knowledge, was that hive entrances should be faced in varying angles, and the hives should ideally not be in straight lines. Ever heard of a ‘beeline’? It's a real thing! Bees tend to fly straight home from a food source, and will enter the closest hive in their line of flight. To encourage bees entering from all directions, we’ve shifted our hives out so that their openings are at varying degrees.

Hopefully soon we will be able to harvest our very own TOMF aloe honey.