Royal Wootton Bassett RFC

Eagle-eyed visitors to our club last week may have noticed an impressive display of honey jars on the shelves above the bar.

The honey has been made by the club's own busy bees - Bassett RugBees - who live in hives in a remote corner of Ballards Ash. We caught up with chief beekeeper Martin Knight from Knights Beekeeping to get the buzz about the bees and the benefits - other than honey - they will bring to Ballards Ash.

What is your background? How did you get into beekeeping?

I've been keeping bees for over a decade now. I started because we heard that local honey was good for hay fever which my young daughter suffered from when she was young. I went on a few courses and got my first hive at home and it went from there. We managed to harvest honey in our first year, and we all fell in love with the honey and its incredible flavour. I'm pleased to say it cured my daughter's hay fever in a matter of months. She hasn't suffered from it to this day!

When and why did the bee hives get installed at Ballards Ash?

"On a very warm afternoon back in May 2022, the hives and bees were installed at the club. We took time to consider where to put them and decided to go for a remote corner out of the way, I would imagine most people don't even know that the club even has them... Obviously, the main reason for this location was to keep them away from the players and visitors to ensure everyone's safety. The location chosen is also a sheltered spot so away it's pretty perfect!"

How many bees live on the site?

"The hives in the summer can have anything up to approximately 50,000 bees in each hive. Obviously, they aren't all flying around the club in a huge cloud. Foraging bees will disperse and fly up to 5 miles in any given direction to forage nectar and pollen (and therefore pollinate thousands of flowers) and bring it back to their hives for food. I would imagine no one has even noticed a change in the number of bees in the area. The queen in each hive rarely leaves the hive as she is busy laying thousands of eggs every day. The other bees are assigned roles within the hive, tending to her every need, cleaning the hive in readiness for eggs, guarding the hive from intruders and of course foraging food."

How often do you have to work with the bees?

"I'm at the club every 10-14 days in the warmer months tending to the bees, opening up the hive, checking to see what they're doing, and the health and overall condition of the colony. As a beekeeper you are always trying to read the signs to gain an understanding of the overall health and condition of the colony.

The most important bee is the queen so ideally, you find her to check she's okay (which is not always easy as there are quite a few in there), so you're checking to see if you can find any eggs, young larvae, or capped cells with young bees emerging. This tells you whether the queen is present without actually finding her. You're also checking pollen stores, honey stores, any signs of disease and whether there is room to expand the size of the colony and store food."

Are our bees a particular kind of bee?

"The club's bees are Buckfast bees, originally bred by monks in the early 20th century, in the Buckfast Abbey in Devon. The monks tried to breed a super bee from many local strains of bees. They were striving for a bee that had a calm temperament and good honey production qualities. These bees are used widely across Britain in 2022 so it's fair to say the monks succeeded!!! They seemed ideal for the rugby club."

Will the Ballards Ash bees make a different type of honey from other local breeds?

"Each year the honey the bees make will be slightly different in appearance and flavour based on the food and crops they are foraging from. This year we've managed one crop as it's their first year, next year we will potentially look to harvest late spring/early summer and late summer/early autumn depending on how well they've done. We obviously want to leave enough honey on each hive to ensure they have plenty of food and aren't going to go hungry and therefore become stressed and irritable or worst-case scenario, die. First and foremost the rugby club is hoping to do something amazing for the environment by aiding the declining bee population. If we can enjoy some honey whilst doing that, that's a real bonus."

Will the bees be a danger to our rugby players?

"During most of the rugby season, the bees are generally spending a lot of time in the hive sheltering from the wind and rain. That said, it's been really warm throughout October and November to date, and they've been quite active still foraging for food for the tougher winter months ahead. As a rule, bees aren't that interested in stinging people. Unlike wasps, if a bee were to sting you it would then die, so it's an act of desperation or extreme provocation. As mentioned, a lot of consideration was taken about their location and people's well-being. We've located the hives well away from the playing areas and balls being kicked into touch."

Tell us about the benefits of beekeeping, from the impact on Ballards Ash’s environment and sustainability.

"Around 800 native plant species rely on bee pollination, which is why this busy insect is such an essential part of our ecosystem. A major advantage of the honeybee is its adaptability. Thanks to their moderate size and snout length, honeybees can pollinate a wide variety of flowers. In a single flight, one bee can pollinate up to 100 flowers. However, once a bee finds a flower it likes, it tends to stick with it. During one flight, a bee will stick to the same plant species, which, in turn, increases that plant’s chances of pollination. What's more, honeybees communicate with one another using special dances, which can lead to entire colonies visiting particularly fruitful flowers. Amazingly, a single bee colony can pollinate up to 20 million flowers a day!"

How far from the club would the bees travel to collect the nectar made for our honey?

"They will fly up to 5 miles from the hive to find food and therefore pollinate plants, but given our location, I think they have plenty of food a lot closer to the club."