Mum's 'passion' led to her sharing home with 50,000 friends

A Liverpool woman has revealed what life is like living with over 50,000 bees at her home.

Amanda Mason, who aptly lives on Sugar Lane in Knowsley Village, is a practice manager at MyDentist. When she isn’t managing Formby's eight-surgery practice, the 49-year-old looks after a hive of tens of thousands of bees.

Amanda’s daughter, Valentina, introduced her to beekeeping half a decade ago. While the 22-year-old was studying at a university in the city, Amanda encouraged her to take a course in her spare time.

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As a result, Valentina enrolled on a beekeeping course and after some years, she asked if she could have a hive at home, kickstarting Amanda's newfound passion.

The mum-of-two, originally from Waterloo, told the ECHO: “I am a keen gardener and forever elbows-deep in compost and plants. Beekeeping is wonderful for my mental health and getting back down to nature after a day of screens and tech really helps to ground me. It has a calming influence on the busy day-to-day life that I have.

“I’m very protective of them, especially during the winter months, during which there is virtually no way of knowing how many of them are left or how well they are surviving. We can top them up with sugar fondant, and try to protect them as much as possible, but they really are just left to the mercy of the elements. I am always so relieved to see them again in the spring.”

Amanda’s hive has grown substantially since 2019 - so much so, that she said it would be “impossible” to count all of the bees, especially during the summer months. During the warmer period, the hive expands by adding more “floors” to accommodate their growing numbers.

A memorable moment in Amanda's beekeeping journey was her first honey harvest a few years ago.

She said: “Harvesting honey is a messy but incredibly satisfying process. Honey is usually extracted once or twice a year, but this very much depends on the weather. Last year we didn’t take any at all as we had so much rain, we didn’t want to risk the bees having no supplies of their own left. The year before, we took around 60 pounds of honey from the hive.”

Amanda inspects the bees at least once a week, checking for signs of disease, that the Queen bee is lying well and ensures the hive is not getting overcrowded. Amanda’s Queen bee is affectionately named after Rita, her great aunt, who is in her mid-90s and described as being the “matriarch of our family.”

She said: “Most people are shocked that we have so many. They really don’t bother anybody though, luckily, and if we didn’t tell people, you would never know that the hive was there. I love sitting in the garden and watching them come and go, they also love to drink from the fountain, it's like a little bee social club on a hot day.”

Moving forward, Amanda said more needs to be done to safeguard the “community” of bees she found “solace in”.

She added: “Less plastic grass and plants would be really beneficial to bees. More wildflower areas, less concrete and tarmac, and education from a young age on how important bees are to us and life on our planet. It genuinely makes me sad to see people trying to kill a bee. I would make watching Bee Movie part of the national curriculum if I could.”

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