A KEEN beekeeper is celebrating the success of his latest two swarms, which have now gone to their new homes.

Rabbi David Hulbert has kept a hive at his home in Mayfield Avenue, Woodford Green for the last decade and each summer his bees swarm to produce new colonies in his back garden.

The swarms, which are formed the queen leaves her hive in summertime, have now been given to new keepers in Woodford Green and Chingford.

Rabbi Hulbert, of Bet Tikvah Synagogue in Newbury Park, said: “I started about 10 years ago, because it's fun and something that my then young family could help me with.

“What happens is on a warm summer's day the queen decides decamp and move on, leaving behind a queen cell. Then the princess, the virgin queen, is born, and she will then mate and reproduce in the hive.

“Of course, keeping bees is very good for your garden and all your plants and your neighbours' plants are well pollinated.

“Last year there were lots of people getting excited and buying bees because there was talk that they were dying out, which is a little over the top.

“Each year I have a harvest about this time and usually another one in the autumn and I produce something like 60 or 70 pounds of honey.

“You don't do much throughout the year but when its harvest time it's very labour-intensive. You have to take out the combs and remove the honey, it's a long day's work. But the rest of the time it just gives you a lot of pleasure.

“We don't sell the honey, we just keep some of it for ourselves and then if people want a jar we ask them to make a donation to the charity we support.

Rabbi Hulbert is a member of Epping Forest Beekeepers. For more information on beekeeping, visit www.eppingforestbeekeepers.co.uk.