Bee swarm in Walls? Help is a minute away.

Walls — Waas in the Shetland dialect, from the Old Norse vágr (bay) — is a small village on the west Mainland of Shetland at the head of Vaila Sound, a sheltered arm of the sea separating the Mainland from the island of Vaila. The village has a pier, primary school, and hall, and serves as the main settlement for the remote west Mainland parishes of Walls and Sandness. Vaila island opposite the village carries a Victorian hall-house. The landscape is typical west Mainland Shetland — open heather moorland, improved valley grazing, and the deeply indented sea voe coastline; the west Mainland is generally more fertile than the central and north parts of the island thanks to a more basic geology. Beekeeping at Walls works the extensive heather moorland of the west Mainland alongside the white clover of the improved croft grassland in the valley bottoms.

Heather is the dominant forage plant of Shetland, covering the vast majority of the island landscape with bell heather and ling running from mid-July through September; the heather honey of Shetland has a distinctive strong character from the pure moorland sources. White clover on improved croft land in the valley bottoms and the more fertile western Mainland parishes provides the main June-to-July summer flow. Gorse — whin — is exceptionally abundant throughout Shetland from March into June, flowering earlier than most mainland sites thanks to the Gulf Stream influence, and providing critical early pollen and nectar for spring colony build-up. Sycamore in the sheltered town gardens and policies of Lerwick and Scalloway gives a productive May flow where trees are established. Bramble on disturbed ground and croft edges from July to August. Dandelion on roadsides and improved grassland in April and May provides early pollen. Ivy on older stone buildings in the more sheltered settings around Lerwick closes the season into October on mild years.