Local Honey Bees at Holme Pierrepont Hall
The Bee Cello at Holme Pierrepont Hall is truly unique and is a colony additional to the eight bee hives now located in the estate gardens at Holme Pierrepont Hall.
The cello, which is home to over 20,000 local honey bees can now be seen by visitors on days when the gardens are open to the public.
The apiary installation is part of 'B-Good', a 4 year project being conducted in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University and other European partners and is the UK base for a European project aimed at further understanding bee behaviour and promoting healthy and sustainable bee-keeping. The project will involve field studies and hive monitoring using new and innovative technologies, never before used in this field.
The cello, which is home to over 20,000 local honey bees can now be seen by visitors on days when the gardens are open to the public.
The apiary installation is part of 'B-Good', a 4 year project being conducted in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University and other European partners and is the UK base for a European project aimed at further understanding bee behaviour and promoting healthy and sustainable bee-keeping. The project will involve field studies and hive monitoring using new and innovative technologies, never before used in this field.
The Bee Cello at Holme Pierrepont Hall
Video courtesy of Dr Martin Bencsik and Sebastian Bencsik
The Perfect Setting for Honey Bees
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Holme Pierrepont Hall is believed to be the perfect setting for the hives, because of the estate's proximity near Nottingham.
Local honey bees typically thrive in a semi-rural environment like Holme Pierrepont Hall, because of the access to suburban gardens with a wide diversity of planting for the bees to forage in. Honey bees situated in more rural areas typically have fewer foraging opportunities, because of the intensity of crop-farming in many areas. The gardens at Holme Pierrepont Hall are also the perfect home for the bees because there's no use of pesticides on the estate. Local residents in West Bridgford and the Trent Valley villages near Holme Pierrepont will benefit from the pollinations services provided by the hives being on the estate. Anyone who has fruit trees, grows vegetables or has an allotment will benefit from enhanced crops, both in quantity and quality. If you would like to encourage honey bees into your own garden at home, local residents can pro-actively plant wild flowers, reduce the use of chemicals and mow lawns less frequently. |
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About the Honey Bees
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Each hive contains around 40,000 bees with a single queen in each hive. There are nine colonies in total on the estate, including the Bee Cello.
The Nottingham Trent University contribution to the B-Good project is coordinated by local expert, Dr. Martin Bencsik, who is responsible for looking after the apiary. Martin says, "Honey bees are quite lazy in nature and don't travel far unnecessarily. They fly as little as possible and typically stay within a 3 mile radius of the hive. Only 10% of the hive will forage daily - even on a busy day, but this still represents 36 thousand bees contributing to pollination in Holme Pierrepont's neighbourhood. |
At this time of year, the bees can often be seen covered in a white powder (as pictured) which is often the pollen from Himalayan Balsam, found in abundance in the area. Honey bees will forage for specific flowers, which will differ from week to week depending on the nectar flow and all of the bees in the apiary are locally adapted bees randomly collected from the local area.
Honey bees are also unique in that perhaps unlike all other insects, they do not hibernate in Winter. Honey Bees are not dissimilar to Man or squirrels in that during Winter months, they simply stay at home. Not unlike us, they consume their storage, the honey they collected during the summer, for food and warmth and they stay indoors. Honey Bees cannot fly when temperatures are below 12◦C but in the hive they aim at sustaining around 35◦C all year round and if you observe a hive in Winter, you'll notice that snow melts on top of the hive, due to the warmth inside."
Honey bees are also unique in that perhaps unlike all other insects, they do not hibernate in Winter. Honey Bees are not dissimilar to Man or squirrels in that during Winter months, they simply stay at home. Not unlike us, they consume their storage, the honey they collected during the summer, for food and warmth and they stay indoors. Honey Bees cannot fly when temperatures are below 12◦C but in the hive they aim at sustaining around 35◦C all year round and if you observe a hive in Winter, you'll notice that snow melts on top of the hive, due to the warmth inside."
The Inspiration Behind the Cello
Dr Martin Bencsik originally came up with the idea of using a cello as a hive, after working for a year with Wolfgang Buttress, the Nottingham modern artist responsible for creating the multi-sensory sculpture 'The Hive' at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
Part of Martin's work is to study the sound and vibrations made by bees and as his wife is a professional cellist, it was a natural thought to consider using a cello as a hive.
Up until recently, Martin had the cello in his garden in West Bridgford.
The Bee Cello can be seen in the estate gardens at Holme Pierrepont Hall on days when the gardens are open to the public.
Part of Martin's work is to study the sound and vibrations made by bees and as his wife is a professional cellist, it was a natural thought to consider using a cello as a hive.
Up until recently, Martin had the cello in his garden in West Bridgford.
The Bee Cello can be seen in the estate gardens at Holme Pierrepont Hall on days when the gardens are open to the public.
