Chiswick is Still a Great Place for Bees

But we must save our street trees and replace like for like

This year's crop of Chiswick Honey

There have always been Beekeepers in Chiswick.

That fact seems to shock / surprise people, but Chiswick was a great Market garden area. And our houses were spaced with gardens and pavements for proper trees. The ones grown all over Europe in residential areas. The Limes, the Acacias, the Chestnuts, and even Sycamores, because people kept bees! And these trees are brilliant for bees. The lovely oaks of the countryside are not as good. And the Birches, beloved of modern planners are no good at all. They are wind pollinated

Remember the Schubert song, ‘Unter den Linden’ speaking of the Lime trees of Berlin.

Our Chestnuts are a sorry state from early summer when the leaves start to brown due to the ‘leaf miner’. Horse chestnuts are suffering on many fronts, but the miner infestation could be solved if the leaves were burnt each autumn instead of leaving them to reinfect the trees the following year.

So it we cannot plant new trees of the same variety, a more fitting choice would be Sweet Chestnuts which are not susceptible to these problems, rather than the Prunus varieties loved by the Council.

And please help save our Limes and Acacias if you have one on a pavement near you. They produce the king of honey.s

My honey crop is smaller this year as I lost 3 hives in this past winter. But there is still a harvest

The penultimate batch is very pale blonde honey from the Limes, Acacias and maybe Sycamores.

Horse Chestnuts lead to darker honey

The last batches are darker, probably from the Horse Chestnuts.

Annette Duckworth

August 16, 2020