One of the greatest challenges of this job is carving out the time to accomplish everything I want to here in Finland. So I was very lucky to be able to visit Aimo Nurminen and the hives of Finnish Black Bees that he has worked so long to preserve and the gardens of Kultaranta, the President’s summer residence, all on the same day.
BEES
By now it is old news that my wife and I have established a hive of bees here at the American Embassy in Kavopuisto. This hive will yield us both honey and wax for candle-making. But like most bee keepers, ours is a colony of Italian bees – bees that produce a significant quantity of honey, but which are challenged to survive the cold Finnish winter. And that is where the Finnish “Black Bee”, Apis mellifera mellifera, enters our story. (Just to be accurate, although called the “Black” bee, this sturdy sub-species is really a rich dark brown in color.) As you will better understand as you read on, this wonderful creature has a lot in common with Finns and Finland.
Black Bees "dripping" off their honeycomb
The Black Bee, although not native to Finland, was introduced here in the early 1800s as the original honey bee stock. Although less generous in its honey production, the Black Bee has significant winter hardiness; has excellent flight strength (even in cold weather); has a strong drive to collect pollen; and has good longevity of queens and worker bees. Moreover, in its pure form, the bees tend to be very gentle.
Of course, it is only natural that bee keepers would seek to maximize their honey production. So over the years, the Black Bee was hybridized with other sub-species of bees. The resulting strains included the Buckfast bee, which for many years became the dominant form throughout Europe. An interesting side note is that during World War II, Germany concluded that the Buckfast bee was not as prolific a producer of honey as were other varieties. So an order went out from the Nazis to destroy all Buckfast hives (and of course any Black Bee hives) in areas under German control. The Black Bee population, already diminished by hybridization, almost fell into extinction. But, much like Finland itself, the Black Bee survived in the face of what would have seemed to be insurmountable odds.
Today, the existence of non-hybridized Black Bees in Finland rests in the hands of a few dedicated Finnish bee keepers – and in particular, Aimo Nurminen who lives in Rymättylä – a small town of about 2,000 people – in the region of Turku.
Aimo maintains several pure Black Bee hives at his home and more importantly, maintains pure Black Bee colonies on a small island off the coast (since the bees will not fly the distance over water back to the mainland of Finland, the Black Bee hives there cannot hybridize with other species of bees).
Aimo and his wife, Raija, graciously had my wife and I, together with members of the Finnish Beekeepers Association, over for a delicious lunch and then of course down to Aimo’s “laboratory” where he breeds Black Bee queens. From there we wandered out into Raija’s beautiful gardens and to the area where Aimo keeps his hives. There they were, just as pretty as could be and we spent the better part of the next hour as Aimo opened hives to show just how gentle and yet robust these bees are. Simply amazing.
But the day had more in store, as Aimo is the beekeeper on the grounds of the President’s summer residence, Kultaranta.
KULTARANTA
Today Kultaranta (“Golden Beach”) serves as the summer residence of the President of Finland. Built for the Finnish entrepreneur and philanthropist Alfred Kordelin, the great granite manor house was designed by the famous Finnish architect Lars Sonck (among his many works are the Tampere Cathedral and the Kallio church here in Helsinki).
Kultaranta - the Golden Beach
And while the home itself is magnificent, it was the 560,000 square meters of gardens surrounding the residence that really brought me there. Hectare after hectare of flowers and fruit trees, and over 1,000 square meters of greenhouses!
Much of the beauty of the gardens and the bounty of the greenhouses are dependent upon the work of the hives, including Black Bees, that are maintained there by Aimo. So after touring the gardens and the exteriors of the buildings, we headed over to the bee hives.
Handling a "frame" of Black Bees with Aimo Nurminen
As you can see from the photo, we were handling the hive without smoke or safety clothing. Now I am not suggesting how anyone else should work with bees, but Aimo generally avoids using smoke when handling the hives. Rather he relies on a fine mist of water, the gentleness of the bees and of course, his decades of experience.
A bee motif carved in grantite on the side of the Manor at Kultaranta
So next time you visit Kultaranta (the gardens are open to the public one day per week), remember that the natural bounty and beauty of its gardens are tended not just by man, but by the humble, resilient and miraculous Finnish Black Bee.
