16 October 2025

Our bees have been very active this season, as have their beekeepers managing the beehives as well as running beekeeping courses. But just how much time do our volunteer beekeepers, Khalil and Salma, need to devote to this? We asked Khalil:

As a general guideline, an inspection of a colony of bees can take anything from twenty minutes to an hour per hive, depending on what is found upon opening each colony. Each hive is checked on a weekly basis between spring and late autumn.

Given that there’s over a dozen hives on site in the summer, that’s a lot of time! What exactly are they looking for when they make their checks?

We check if the bees have enough food, and whether they are healthy or have any diseases or ailments. We also look to see if the queen is laying well, and if they need additional space for the queen to lay or for the storage of excess honey. Finally, we look if there are any signs that the bees are preparing to swarm.

That’s not all:

Away from the hives, there is more work including making frames, building beehives, extracting honey, putting it in jars and labelling, and of course travel time to and from the hives.

Beekeeping courses

May and June are usually the months when the bees are at their strongest, so this is the best time to run beekeeping courses and experience days.

We usually keep around a dozen hives on the roof; this is to ensure all our students can get as much hands-on experience with the bees as possible without having to go into any hive more than once per day. This works well, and the students learn so much in the four sessions we teach them.

The students leave the course with a full understanding of how to manage their own beehives, both theoretical and practically.

After the course, we keep in contact with all our students and continue their learning via a peer-based self-help group that we set up and manage.

Events, Talks & Exhibitions

During the year the bees continue to be a source of fascination for the many visitors to the centre, viewing the observation hives, or attending talks and exhibitions where we have information stalls about bees and their benefit to the environment. 

The BBC visited in September to do a piece on Islam, the bees and the environment for their Sunday Morning Live show.

Sunday Morning Live – Series 16: 12/10/2025 – BBC iPlayer

The end of the season

We finish the year with the bees in a strong position. It just remains to treat them for varroa, and to give them some top insulation to keep them warm and to ensure they are watertight. This will give them the best chance to survive the winter.

The one major new threat to the honeybees in the years ahead is the invasive Asian Hornet. It has rapidly spread through Europe, and has landed on our shores in the last few years. Our management techniques will need to change to confront this apex predator of honeybees.

In 2026 we hope to invite other beekeepers so they can learn how we have successfully managed our beehives on the rooftop. It will provide a great training opportunity, allowing them to become more familiar with the unique beekeeping project undertaken at the Mosque.

The year ends with seven full colonies on the LMC roof and one in the Maryam Centre.