Beekeeping in Britain by Andrew Tyzack

Bees In Art: Raising Awareness About Pollinators In Peril
Andrew Tyzack and Debbie Grice Found Special Gallery To Celebrate Role Of Bees In Our Lives
Written By Todd Wilkinson

As artists who together operate The Land Gallery in England in East Yorkshire, they decided to do something about it: Put out a call to other artists and open a virtual gallery with procceds from the sale of artwork going to the cause of pollinator conservation. Tyzack has a particular insight into the problem, which in many parts of the globe has manifested itself as Colony Collapse Disorder. Outbreaks of CCD have been blamed on a virulent combination of mites and a fungus killing honey bees with weakened immune systems potentially caused by exposure to pesticides. Loss of habitat also is taking a serious toll on wild bees, with several species in the U.S. now imperiled.

Tyzack himself is a third-generation beekeeper, a practitioner of the apiary arts, husbanding his domestic honey hives to make sweet honey.

More and more, artists are stepping forward to aid in the cause of conservation. This effort on behalf of pollinators is similar to one led by biologist Kerry Kriger who founded Save The Frogs and has sponsored an art contest that is open to painters of all ages.

Bees in Art celebrates Hymenoptera, the order of insect that encompasses honey bees, bumblebees and related species. He said that he and Grice welcome artists in North America to contact him if they are interested in supporting bee conservation by making works available for sale...

For complete article please visit The Wildlife Art Journal.

• Artists for Nature Foundation: ANF acts as a catalyst for nature conservation by asking artists to capture the spirit of endangered landscapes and species in their natural habitat.
• Apiservices: Promoting beekeeping and the bee as a pollinating agent, and the integration of beekeeping in interdisciplinary rural development projects.
• A Surrey Beekeeper: Follow James on his quest to obtain one, just one, pot of honey on his first year of beekeeping.....
• Bees for Development: Raising awareness about the value of beekeeping for poverty alleviation.
• Bee Proof Suits: Innovative beekeeping clothing. Protective clothing designed by beekeepers to keep you cool and protect from stings.
• Buglife: The invertebrate Conservation Trust.
• Bug Squad Blog: The blog of Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist for UC Davis Department of Entomology.
• BWARS: Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (British).
• Devon Beekeepers Association
• Eastbourne Beekeepers Association
• East Grinstead Beekeepers Association
• Glenn Apiaries: Dedicated to breeding honeybees for high honey production and disease resistance.
• Help Save Bees: A campaign to promote bee awareness.
• Learn Beekeeping: Beekeeping, for all levels, courses in Wiltshire, UK.
• Natural Beekeeping Trust: Promoting ‘natural’ beekeeping.
• North Pennine Bees: Beekeeping courses, UK.
• Operation Bumblebee: Reviving the fortunes of the humble bumblebee across the entire UK arable farming area.
• Plan Bee: The Co-operative has launched Plan Bee, a 10-point plan to help reverse the decline in the British bee population.
• Sark Paintings: Home of Sark artist Rosanne Guille and La Maison Rouge Gallery.
• Scottish Beekeepers: The website representing Scottish beekeepers nationally and internationally.
• Wakefield & Potefract Beekeepers’ Association
• Wharfedale Beekeepers Association
• What’s that Bug?: An insect identification website.

The Five Queens by Ronald Pennell, diamond wheel engraved glass


The Last Queen by Ronald Pennell, diamond wheel engraved glass

For many years we have been aware of the declining Bee population. Having a richly planted country garden, Bees and Butterflies in great profusion, have been one of its chief delights. The changes that we have seen are dramatic but world wide the exploitation of Bees for commercial crops on a vast scale is leading us all into a disastrous situation. By a strange co-incidence I had begun a series of engravings on this theme when I received an invitation from Contemporary Applied Arts to take part in The Honey Bee and the Hive. My Bee series engravings on glass are both optimistic and pessimistic. The Last Queen shows a last Queen Bee approaching a Peoplecomb with people, animals and birds, each appropriately in their own strangely distorted cells. Then Five Queens has two Bee Keepers with one hive and five Queen Bees. All the faces are based upon good friends and engraved from memory. Finally, Angry Bee and Two Friendly Bees express my view upon reading in the New York Times recently, that Bees can recognise
individual human faces.

The Honey Bee and the Hive – an exhibition of British craft curated by Wendy Ramshaw at Contemporary Applied Arts, London
26th March – 1 May 2010

Beehive Pins by Vicki Ambery Smith


Bee Table by Wendy Ramshaw

The vulnerable, beautiful, industrious bee, is the inspiration of never-seen-before work from twenty seven of Britain’s top designer/makers. ‘The Honey Bee and the Hive’ at Contemporary Applied Arts in London is curated by Wendy Ramshaw CBE, critically acclaimed artist jeweller and designer.

The exhibition is a celebration of this iconic insect and a response to the threat of depleting bee populations. Native British bees are dying out — and with them will go flora and fauna. Many experts claim there may be less than a decade left to save bees from extinction. Ramshaw is passionate about their plight and is organising this exhibition to raise awareness, inspire and raise money (a percentage of sales from the exhibition will go to the British Bee Keeper’s Association).

Ramshaw has invited a wide range of makers (all of whom are members of Contemporary Applied Arts) working in metal, glass, textiles, paper, wood and ceramics. Ramshaw herself is making a table from powder coated, mild steel – the top of the table has a open grid honeycomb pattern and suspended beneath it is a sheet of glass on which can be seen an image of a bee. Another jewellery designer, Zoe Arnold is also working in a much bigger scale than her usual work. She is creating a floor installation of porcelain bees, individually numbered and lit with an atmospheric floor lamp.

The process of pollination is explored by textile artist Ann Richards who is creating a collection of necklaces and bracelets in silk, steel, linen and paper. Richards’ weaving technique will echo the honeycomb form. Jennie Moncur is weaving a colourful, contemporary still life using the pollinated peach tree from her own garden as the main subject.

Taking a more scientific approach, ceramicist Joanna Veevers is designing bees as specimens alongside her own sketchbooks full of detailed bee drawings. Cathy Miles who creates wire, drawing-like sculptures is exhibiting a wall installation of bees accompanied by a written guide outlining imaginary conversations going on in the hive, their worries, gripes and camaraderie.

Other artists like Rebecca Catterall, Julia Griffiths Jones and Vicki Ambery Smith are exploring the highly skilled construction skills of the bee and it’s honey comb, architectural home. Contemporary basketmaker Dail Behennah will also focus on the combs by creating a ‘ghost’ of a honeycomb which will cast a shadow more visible than the work itself.

A small derelict church becomes an apiary for honeybees on the North York Moors.

New in Bees in Art we have a copy of ‘The Life of the Bee’ written by Maurice Maeterlinck and illustrated by E. J. Detmold, and first published in 1901. Detmold's illustrations present honeybees as inhabitants of insect cities in an Art Nouveau style. 'Tarzan of the Apes', by Edgar Rice Burroughs; 'White Fang' and 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London were also published around this time, all reflecting post Darwin concerns evoking nature red in tooth and claw. Detmold's brutal illustration: 'The Duel of the Queens' (below), where one virgin queen honeybee mercilessly slaughters her rival sister, and Maeterlinck's chapter on the callous annual eviction of the honeybee drones, makes one's blood run cold. A feeling not often associated with the industrious honeybee. However, Detmold balances the apparent brutality of honeybee society with pastoral scenes of happy honeybees collecting nectar, that do reflect the decorative qualities of the Art Nouveau period.

‘The Life of the Bee’ written by Maeterlinck & illustrated by E. J. Detmold

A brand new pencil drawing of honeybees by Andrew Tyzack. This drawing features the three ‘castes’ of bees found in a honeybee colony: the queen, the drones and the workers.

Honeybees by Andrew Tyzack

Bee and Hymenoptera related links. Updated regularly:

• Artists for Nature Foundation ANF acts as a catalyst for nature conservation by asking artists to capture the spirit of endangered landscapes and species in their natural habitat.
• Apiservices Promoting beekeeping and the bee as a pollinating agent, and the integration of beekeeping in interdisciplinary rural development projects.
• Bees for Development Raising awareness about the value of beekeeping for poverty alleviation.
• Buglife The invertebrate Conservation Trust
• Bug Squad Blog The blog of Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist for UC Davis Department of Entomology.
• BWARS Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society (British).
• Eastbourne Beekeepers The Eastbourne and District Beekeepers Association.
• East Grinstead Beekeepers Association
• Help Save Bees A campaign to promote bee awareness.
• Learn Beekeeping Beekeeping, for all levels, courses in Wiltshire, UK.
• Plan Bee The Co-operative has launched Plan Bee, a 10-point plan to help reverse the decline in the British bee population.
• Scottish Beekeepers The website representing Scottish beekeepers nationally and internationally.
• Wakefield & Potefract Beekeepers’ Association
• wharfedalebka.org.uk Wharfedale Beekeepers Association

Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525-1569) made paintings of peasants going about their lives within the landscape. Breugel's candid and descriptive style in his engraving of beekeepers allowed Martin Buckle, master skep maker and beekeeper, to re-construct their protective clothing. For the mask a willow slath from the bottom of a basket is used, whilst calico is used for the suit itself. Martin notes that Breugel's beekeepers aren't wearing gloves, and so doesn’t wear any himself, merely tucking his hands inside the arms of his suit whilst beekeeping. Martin’s re-construction is described in detail here.

Beekeeping by Pieter Breugel the Elder (1525-1569)



Beekeeper Martin Buckle capturing a honeybee swarm whilst wearing a 16th century bee suit

Debbie Grice, co-founder of Bees in Art, is an award winning artist and graduate of the Royal College of Art. Married to Andrew Tyzack she is the ‘beekeepers wife’, jarring honey and creating beautiful labels for the honey jars. Winner of the Folio Society Illustration Award 1998, Debbie produces evocative mezzotint engravings of apiaries. She is also a qualified pilot and is featured in a Wellcome Trust Community TV production.

Beehives by Wood Mezzotint Engraving by Debbie Grice

Andrew Tyzack is now preparing his bees for winter. The bees can store up to 20kg/50Ib of sugar syrup in the brood chamber. Now that the queen honeybee’s egg laying is much reduced, the empty brood cells provide plenty of storage room. The syrup is given to the bees with the use of a feeder, they collect and take the syrup down into the brood chamber and cap it with beeswax. During the cold winter months the bees cluster together and shiver their flight muscles to generate warmth. They consume the syrup to fuel this shivering.

Feeding honeybees with sugar syrup

Lastly a mouse guard is attached over the hive entrance. This prevents mice from entering the bee hive and constructing a nest alongside the bees. During the winter mice can eat their way through the stored syrup, beeswax combs and even the wintering bees.

Attaching a mouse guard to a British Modified National Bee Hive

The bees are then left alone until December, when they will be trickled with a dilute solution of oxalic acid. Which is a required procedure to reduce the numbers of Varroa Destructor Mites (Varroa jacobsoni), now endemic in Britain. Many scientists suspect Varroa as one of the causes of the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder.