Creuse couple revolutionising beekeeping with bee guardianship

Tucked away in the Creuse, in the middle of France, is a very special place where the smallest and busiest workers in the garden are extremely well looked after. In this haven, their needs are understood and they are offered beautiful homes in which to live and a rich larder is provided so they can eat year-round. 

The fortunate bees and other pollinators which chance upon the 5,500m2 of Karin Maassen and Adam Wright’s garden are lucky indeed. 

The pair met almost three decades ago while backpacking in Australia. Adam, from the UK, went to live in Karin’s native Netherlands, but they both longed for more space and to surround themselves in nature. They decided to search for a new home in France.

Having visited various regions, nearly 20 years ago, they plumped for the Creuse, between Aubusson and Bourganeuf, appreciating just how empty and green the area was. 

The property they bought, on the northern edge of the Parc Naturel Régional de Millevaches en Limousin, needed renovating and the garden was little more than an overgrown field with a few ancient apple and wild pear trees, plus one old orange rose which grew against a wall. They set to work to create a comfortable home and a productive, beautiful garden. 

They also wanted to improve the biodiversity around them, enriching the wildlife and their habitats.

In June 2012, they installed their first hive and within the week a swarm of bees arrived in the garden from somewhere. Successive swarming seasons brought new bees. Intrigued, they determined to know more.

In 2015, they found their first bee tree and then others in the local area. Fascinated, they realised that although colonies in the trees were thriving, at the same time other beekeepers were reporting so many problems. This began their interest in a new version of beekeeping which they term bee guardianship.

Karin and Adam grow plants that have a double function – they provide food and support wildlife, particularly pollinators.

“It was Adam who first said he wasn’t comfortable with how we were looking after our bees,” Karin remembers.

“We were doing it in a totally conventional way but it felt exploitative – we needed to treat for varroa [a mite] and it was too much in terms of chemicals. There had to be a better way. Now we practise bee guardianship. We support the bees. Adam makes hives – various designs – which are more like how bees live naturally. 

“We are not looking for high yields, we are encouraging and fostering better bee health. Bees will, in the wild, create nests in hollow trees. They will insulate them with moss. We have around 35 hives in the garden but we only take about half a jar from each. That’s enough. It’s a treat. Adam makes a hive where the bees are not disturbed when we take our little harvest.” 

Karin and Adam ensure that there are always nectar sources available for the whole year. Karin explains that due to global warming, more bees fly around in winter now.

“It used to be unusual to see a bee in January,” she says, “but now, if the sun comes out, some bees will be searching for food, too. We have the winter-flowering honeysuckle, a shrub not a climber, lonicera fragrantissima, which feeds them but also fills the air with a honeyed scent. And hellebores – I love them and so do the bees. 

“Snowdrops, too, give them a boost in the colder months. In spring, the blossom trees are full of bees, and bluebells are a good source too. We are up at 600-650m here so our spring flowers are a little later. Chaenomeles Japonica, the Japanese quince, is reliable early.” 

If you are wondering how to help the bees and pollinators in your garden, Karin has some very useful advice.

“I am tending more towards perennials these days but sowing some annuals now and next month is a very good idea – phacelia is such an easy one. It’s a green manure so you could even scatter the seeds over a spare metre in your vegetable patch. The purple flowers are very pretty and they will attract bees very quickly. 

“Buckwheat is a really good thing to sow – its nectar is produced at about six in the morning and so early bees will get some – it is especially good during a canicule (heatwave) as bees can’t fly when the weather is too hot and other flowers are scarcer. Poppies are an excellent idea too – they’ll grow in almost nothing,” Karin laughs. “I leave my overwintered brassicas to go to seed. They are pretty too – all those yellow flowers provide food for the bees.”

Karin also suggests planting lots of herbs such as marjoram, oregano and thyme. “These plants are nectar-rich with lots of flowers, but are medicinal too,” she says. 

I ask if they have done a bee census in their garden.

“No, but that’s an idea. There are some 400 solitary bee species in France/northern Europe, you know. I certainly could not recognise all of them. I am always learning. Some I thought were other insects, I now realise are tiny bees. We get the black and purple carpenter bee and the masonry bee. You come to know that certain plants attract specific types of bees.” 

For a few years, before Covid, they welcomed visitors to their garden.

“It’s a lot of fun, opening your garden,” recalls Karin. “I really enjoy meeting people, talking about plants, and Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts raises money for good causes. We stopped because we decided to change the garden a bit – we wanted to create food forests and we needed to wait until people could see what we were trying to achieve with these alterations. We were actually talking about opening again soon. In the meantime, I like to go and help out at other gardens. I take orders for tea and coffee, and hope to get it right,” she laughs. “I give some of my propagated plants to be sold, too.” 

Karin tells me that they have participated in a French film about their bee garden and I ask what is next for them. “My dream? To fix up our outbuildings and have people come to classes, maybe for a weekend or so. They could learn about bee guardianship and really understand what it is we are trying to do, and they can find out how to do something similar in their own gardens. That way bees, and other pollinators can be better protected and that’s better for nature – and what’s better for nature is better for all of us.”

For more information on Adam and Karin’s ideas on the rewilding of bees and their innovative hives, go to their website at www.custosapium.com and check on Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts website for the most up-to-date details of any garden openings.