University of Greenwich Bees

This week we are given an update from the various bee hives we have across the  University of Greenwich. Since getting hives at Southwood House on the Avery Hill Campus (looked after by John & Christine Hird) a couple of years ago we have added further hives at Avery Hill, managed by local beekeeper Colin Edwards, hives at Greenwich looked after by Camilla Goddard of Capital Bee and now the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) have installed some hives at Medway too. We here how some of our bees have been getting on this year, starting with the ones at Medway where Jeremy Cooper explains how their first season has gone:

‘After arriving as flat packs, the three bee hives were assembled and installed on the Medway Campus in June, which was later than ideal, but season started slowly and the colonies of bees arrived later than expected. The bees have been busy since then, operating from their hives situated between Hawke and Grenville buildings.

This month saw our first harvest of 37 jars of lovely clear honey, which were distributed to members of the beekeeping group and some NRI managers.

NRI Beekepers group inspecting their hives

NRI Beekepers group inspecting their hives

Since June, we have been learning as we go about bee husbandry. By a happy coincidence, a local bee expert was on the campus when we were making one of our first hive inspections and he (known locally as John the bee man) has been very helpful in training and advising the group of volunteers. All 20 group members have now had the chance to handle frames which are full of bees, and to learn how to tell the queen from workers and drones.

Several people in the group took photographs of bees on flowers, and some have been used on labels for our first harvest. This picture, taken by Mark Parnell’s wife Sue, is one of eight that featured on the labels this first season.

NRI honey bee

NRI honey bee

For the rest of the year there are several jobs to be done, including treating the hives against the deadly mite Varroa, that has been one of the factors to have reduced bee populations in recent years. Other factors as less straightforward, and if we can get the support, members of NRI may do some research in future years to find out more about how to safeguard these important pollinators. In the meantime we are marveling at the way the bees operate (and enjoying the honey!)’

John & Christine let us know how our original hives at Southwood House have fared this year, ‘We extracted [honey] at the end of July, it wasn’t a brilliant yield but better that 2011. As you may have read in the press the weather hasn’t been very kind to bees this year. After extraction it was time for putting the varroa treatment into practice, which takes four weeks.  Varroa is a parasite we cant eradicate but hopefully can keep under control.

After the treatment was complete we then start to feed, we feed the bees as we need to make sure they have enough stores to overwinter.  We feed a solution of white cane sugar mixed with warm water so it dissolves and the bees can then store it.

So now we are up to date, we have been down to see the bees and have hefted (lifted to feel the weight) the hives which seem fine for stores. Within the next few weeks we will put the mouse guards on the entrance and a protective cover round each hive to prevent woodpecker damage.’ In total we have received 60 jars of honey from the bees at Southwood house and still have a few leftover – get in contact with sustainability@greenwich.ac.uk if you fancying buying a jar.

John & Christine looking for the Queen earlier this year

John & Christine looking for the Queen bee earlier this year

Colin Edwards, another local beekeeper also keeps hives at the Avery Hill Campus, ‘The Avery hill bees, having had a rough start this season due to weather conditions, the spring crop of honey was zero.  However, after introducing a few new queens Italian and Buckfast, and a few of my own,  all the colonies have built up well, but the second crop was very low due to lack of nectar flow. All the bees are now feeding well and looking promising for the winter season spent on the meadow,  so we are hopefully looking forward to a better honey crop next year!

Lastly I would just like to thank the staff of the Avery hill campus  for all the help and support throughout the year.’

Avery Hill Meadow Beehive

Avery Hill meadow beehive with woodpecker protection

Camilla Goddard’s bees at the Greenwich Campus were removed on the request of LOCOG and they spent a few months on holiday in London Fields in Hackney and Covent Garden in central London. They are being moved back into the hives as we speak and will be looking forward to being back in Greenwich!

Organic Cocoa Farming in Bahia

As regular readers will know,  Serena who is one of our students who helps lead the community garden project made the most of her summer learning more about permaculture and sustainable agriculture and writes about the second part of her summer experience before returning to study for the 2nd year of her part time MSc in Sustainable Environmental Management with the Natural Resources Institute here at the university.  Over to you Serena… 

During the month of September I have been travelling through the region of Bahia in Brazil and worked as a wwoofer in the organic farm Fazienda Santa Tereza, located in the Mata Atlantica jungle, between Itacaré and Serra Grande, southern Bahian coast. This region is widely known for the production of cacao – which is specifically the reason why I chose to wwoof  here! 

Fazienda Santa Tereza

Cocoa beans are considered “super food” because they contain many beneficial nutrients known for promoting healthy mood and positive mental state such as serotonin, dopamine and phenylethylamine; they are also one of the richest natural sources of antioxidants. Ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations highly valued cocoa beans as a source of energy and used them as money. 

Fazenda Santa Tereza is a 34 hectare property where agroforestry and permaculture principles are practiced; alongside cocoa, many other products are successfully grown: such as acai, citrus, mango, bananas, pineapple, coconut, vanilla, cupuaçu (a fruit related to cacao) and also seringueira (the tree rubber comes from) together with other local fruits such as jenipapo. The owner of the farm, Mathieu, is also allowing some parts of the property to return to native Mata Atlantica. 

pineapple plant

ripening mango

The cocoa tree is not an easy plant to grow, indeed it requires precise climatic conditions and it will grow only in a very warm, moist, shady environment, being also very susceptible to pests and disease; in addition, a tree must be five or six years old before it will bear fruit. 

ripening cocoa fruit - not ready!

cocoa tree bearing fruit

Cocoa beans are the seeds of a yellow, rugby ball-shaped fruit that sprouts directly from the trunk of the cacao tree. Pods don’t all ripen at the same time and must be removed individually by hand, using machetes or large knives, taking care not to hurt nearby buds. 

harvesting cocoa pods

opening the fruit

Once opened, the pod contains about 40 cocoa beans covered in a sticky, white, delicious sweet lemony flavour pulp – while the actual bean is bitter and hard to eat. Beans are scooped out to be fermented and dried, this process takes from two to eight days. 

cocoa beans inside the pod

cocoa beans left to dry

Fazienda Santa Tereza produces delicious handmade dark chocolate and one day I happily volunteered to make some: first we warmed up the cocoa beans on the stove to remove the skin 

removing the skin - great smell!

We left the beans to warm up in the sun and reach a proper temperature and become soft: 

cocoa beans, warming up!

Cocoa beans were then ground to achieve a nice powdery consistence 

grinding cocoa beans!

…a little bit of sugar and honey are added and mixed using this very sophisticated piece of modern technology (heavy work!!!), banging for about 45 minutes: 

working the chocolate

until a very fine and smooth – almost liquid! – texture was achieved and the (very!) dark chocolate was ready … shiny and delicious! 

job done! yummy!

One of the main tasks at the Fazienda was the creation a suitable micro-environment around the trunks of the one-year-old cocoa trees which Mathieu had transplanted about a month ago. First we got rid of the weeds around the trunk using a hoe (also to break up soil compaction) whilst being careful not to damage the roots. 

clearing the weeds (hard work!!)

The soil here has a high content of clay and is therefore very hard to work with, which is the reason why it is important to add large quantities of organic matter– in this case pot ash and leaf mold. 

After weeding, we placed some old logs around the base of the tree: in fact there is plenty of spare old wood whitin the Fazienda’s forest! Wood will slowly rot down with the help of beneficial fungus, bacteria and micro organisms, which will break down and release the nutrients into the soil – carbon in particular – also offering ground cover, preventing nutrients from being washed away, and shelter to beneficial animals. 

frog - perfectly camouflaged

some useful wildlife, having a feast!

a millepede - loving rotten wood

Around and in between the logs we sowed few leguminose beans seeds: they will fix nitrogen with the action of the bacteria living in their roots and function as green manure/living mulch. On top of the logs, we placed large amounts of hay, which will help retain both moisture and temperature while also suppressing weeds and protecting the soil structure. 

placing the logs around cocoa trees

job done: final touch of mulch - hay

..some other common wildlife hanging around in the jungle..

With the help of a GPS, one day we carried out a survey to establish the presence of native vanilla within the property of the Fazienda – this census will eventually lead to the creation of a database of organic vanilla plants in this area of Bahia; each species of vanilla was identified and measured. 

vanilla census!

The vanilla plant is a tropical vine, which can reach over one hundred feet; it belongs to the orchid family but it is the only one that produces an agriculturally valuable crop. 

the vanilla vine

Unfortunately almost 90% of the vanilla flavour we find in our food today has been created by the addition of ingredients containing synthetic vanillin. 

dried vanilla pods

During my experience as a wwoofer I also had the chance to visit Comunitade Campina, an ecovillage located in the beautiful settings of Vale do Capao, Chapada Diamantina. Since 1998 the people from the community successfully practice principles of permaculture and forest gardening. 

the mandala garden

Cassava is a major staple food

the wormery - nice home for the earthworms!

the seed bank - to exchange seeds!

and a very sustainable juice maker!