Keeping the Hive and Memories of a Loved one Alive

Cyrenians Farm is home to our Green Skills Centre, our Residential Community, and our community of bees. Read on to learn more about the impact the beehives have had not only on the farm, but in the lives of those who come to take care of them.  

Beekeeper Marlyn's story

Years ago, my husband Keith heard a programme on the radio about bees which fascinated him. In 2001, after years of searching, Keith managed to be introduced to Cyrenians through a friend, and they were delighted to have bees at their farm. At last, his dream became a reality and the farm, and his bees became his ‘happy place’! 

In 2015 Keith was joined by another beekeeper, Carrie, and soon the honey was flowing and even being included in Cyrenians’ fruit and veg bags.   

Sadly, in early 2021 Keith took ill and passed away within weeks. I had never met Carrie, but before he passed Keith asked me to phone her and ask if she would take care of his bees till we as a family could decide what to do. After the funeral I took this terrible urge to go to the bees, and Carrie agreed to meet me there. From the moment I got there I knew I had to take care of Keith’s bees. Carrie has been amazing, helping me at every stage of the process and I know I could never have done it without her help. 

I was incredibly touched when the management at the farm said they would like to mark Keith’s time at the farm as he was the first beekeeper at Cyrenians. It was decided that a memorial bench would be built, allowing anyone to take a pause and enjoy Keith’s happy place themselves.  

Sam drew up plans and asked me which one I would prefer. There was one drawing of a bench built into a drystone wall which was just perfect as Keith loved drystone walling and had actually done a course in it.

With a group of young people from the farm, Sam built this beautiful bench between two apple trees which fits in perfectly with the landscape. As I sit on Keith’s bench and look over the farm, I think the bees and the friends I have made here have been such a blessing to me and been an incredible place of healing and certainly been a big part of my grief journey. 

Beekeeper Carrie's story

Will and I arrived at the farm in 2015 to keep bees at the top of the Orchard on the south side of the farm. It’s a wonderful spot surrounded by fruit trees and we felt very lucky indeed.  We purchased a colony of bees from a retiring beekeeper in Dumfriesshire, but these turned out to be rubbish bees, the queen had lots of horribly feisty daughters who proved a proper menace.  Her sons mated with Keith's virgin queen and his bees became horribly feisty too - it wasn’t a good start!   

it was a slow and bumpy start, by the end of 2016 there were no bees and still no honey.  In early 2017 my wife Catherine became very ill with bowel cancer, so kind Will looked after our bees until Catherine passed away on 12th June.  The day after the funeral, when I was all at sea, Will phoned me: “Carrie, Carrie come quick as you can, there is a swarm for us to catch in Trinity, get round here with a smoker and box right away”.   

We caught the swarm, and a second one too that day, and brought them to the farm and they turned out to be lovely lovely bees. Suddenly beekeeping at the farm was all go! I named the queens Cleopatra and Daphne as I was going through a classical Greek naming phase, and they were the start of many generations and colonies of lovely bees that have so enjoyed life on the farm and have produced hundreds of kilos of wonderful honey. Being busy with the bees, who continue to just buzz in and out of the hive as a continuous stream of life, kept me going through a tricky time.  Will fell in love and moved to the Czech Republic for a few years so I had lots to do! 

Although I knew Keith was the other beekeeper at the farm our timings never seemed to overlap so we only met a couple of times but in March 2021 Marlyn and Keith texted me to say Keith was poorly and could I check up on his bees.  It was a really cold spring, but I could see a wee cuddle of bees hanging on down in the hive waiting for the warmth to come.  Just a few weeks later Marlyn messaged me early in the morning that Keith had just died and so I went out to the farm to tell his bees.  It was a sunny morning, and a very few bees were coming and going.   Since then, Marlyn has looked after Keith’s bees, starting as a new beekeeper in her 70’s she is a natural and brilliant beekeeper, and I have so enjoyed our beekeeping together and the cheerful competition as to whose bees are behaving better.  My colonies have had a dreadful time in 2024, terrible weather meant the Queens had trouble getting mated and so this is the smallest harvest I have had for many years.   

I love being at the Cyrenians Farm.  Every year the planting looks better and better and, in the summer, it reminds me of what I imagine the Garden of Eden to look like.  The farm team and their regular volunteers have hugely improved and increased the area under cultivation and the forage for bees gets better and better.    

In the spring the honey is largely a mixture of apple and pear blossom, sycamore and oil seed rape from nearby fields so it is a sweet set honey.  In the summer it has herbs and flowers from the farm mixed with lime tree blossom, bramble, rosebay willowherb, and is a runny honey although the traces in the comb of fast setting spring honey usually do mean it granulates quite quickly.   

Four years ago, Andie, Market Garden Coordinator, told me the apple blossoms on trees in Orchard 4 were not getting pollinated and asked if it was possible to move bees closer to them. I loved going down there, often I would surprise a couple of deer quietly grazing.  Since then, each Autumn the trees have so many apples on them their branches are bending low.  I also have learned more about how my bees work with other creatures, I noticed these big stripey slugs going in and out my hive and the bees not minding, Andie explained these are Leopard slugs and they eat all the detritus that falls on the hive floor helping to keep the colony clean.  Less welcome has been visible attempts by a badger to get to the honey but so far, they have been unsuccessful! 

The newest member of the beekeeping team at the farm is Ruby, my young cockapoo.  She adores Theo, the other farm dog, they play together wonderfully, and Theo is like her big brother.  She is a lot less keen on bees and keeps a safe distance, hiding in my van or playing with the other farm volunteers while I am working.  I think of the farm as a growing and healing space, and I feel enormous joy at being able to contribute there.