The National Trust received the 17th-century manor house in the remote northwest of Wales with one very specific requirement: the bees in the roof, who occasionally make so much honey that it seeps through wall fissures, were to be kept alone.
About 50,000 endangered Welsh black bees have been provided a temporary home while the slate roof of the house Plas yn Rhiw, on the Llŷn peninsula, needs to be renovated due to the damage caused by wind and rain.
The home’s property operations manager, Mary Thomas, stated: “They were relocated about ten miles away; if they had been closer, they might have returned immediately. The plan is for them to make their way back to the roof when they are moved back to the orchard of the home in the hives they are currently residing in in the late spring.
In 1938, three sisters, Eileen, Lorna, and Honora Keating, bought Plas yn Rhiw, saved it from ruin, and carefully renovated it.
From a distance, beekeepers on scaffolding are visible through the vegetation.
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Beekeepers atop Plas yn Rhiw’s roof. Image courtesy of National Trust/Iolo Penri
“We earnestly wish that the wild bees be undisturbed,” the sisters wrote when they gave the house to the National Trust in 1952, along with the requirement that they take care of the bees on the roof. Please ask everyone who uses the property to stop using dangerous pesticides and preparations, and look for guidance on safe alternatives.
Despite having its distinct microclimate on the Llŷn peninsula and being generally milder than other parts of North Wales, Plas yn Rhiw can experience severe winter weather throughout the winter months due to strong winds and heavy precipitation.
The roof has had minor repairs made over the past 200 years, but the current extreme weather has caused it to deteriorate, necessitating a full replacement.
In addition to more than 4,000 new Welsh slates from the Penrhyn quarry in north Wales—once the largest slate quarry in the world—the work is being done in stages, with the old slates being reused where practical.
Black bees were believed to have disappeared from all of northern Britain save the most isolated areas, but they were found again in 2012, even in north Wales. The Welsh black honey bee, according to the trust, is a subspecies of the black honey bee.
SwarmCatcher, a specialized business, was hired to remove the bees from the roof and relocate them to neighboring hives.
Partially coated in bees, a honeycomb is held in a hand wearing a blue safety glove.
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After the job is over, about 50,000 Welsh black bees will return to their hives, which are located 10 miles away from the house. Image courtesy of National Trust/Iolo Penri
The Keating sisters were avid supporters of the Council for the Protection of Rural Wales and had a great love for the outdoors and wildlife, according to Thomas.
“The Keatings made the house a home for more people than just themselves when they renovated it. The bees living in the ceiling were welcome, and they still are, even though sometimes in the summer we find honey seeping from wall crevices. We also enjoy the company of badgers in the woodland and rabbits in the garden.
According to the trust, they were more accustomed to figuring out how to safeguard bats during roofing construction and indicated that they were not often seeing bees in roof areas.
The soprano pipistrelle, common pipistrelle, and whiskered bats that live in Plas yn Rhiw are also being safeguarded throughout the roofing works. We’ll carefully put more small openings beneath the slates at the extremities of the structure and under the eaves to allow the bees to return to their former habitat, while still preserving access for the bats that sleep in the roof.
After the project is finished, it is anticipated that the waterproof roof will make the home more energy-efficient and lessen the risk of humidity damage to the collection and room redecorating.
On March 20, the parkland and garden will reopen, but the house will stay closed until conservation efforts are carried out.
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