For March’s meeting, Beekeeper Bronwen White joined us to teach us all about the art and skill involved in keeping bees, an essential part of our ecosystem.
We heard all about the different types of bee we may find in our gardens (including my personal favourite – the hairy-footed flower bee), the life cycle of a bee, and we were shown all of the components required to provide a hive for them to thrive.
Toni and the bee!
Here are some fun facts we learnt about our humble bumbles!
A Queen bee can lay up to 1500 eggs per day…them’s some hardworking ovaries!
Bees communicate by waggle dance! The direction of the waggle lets the other bees know which way to go, with the speed of the waggle telling them how far they need to go to reach their pollen-y destination
Bees can’t see red, but can see in UV – so you should notice that when petals on flowers are lined, the lines will always point to the pollen which help the bee find it’s way.
Bronwen brought with her a bee hive and some honey samples
We also held a honey-themed bake off – sampling honey glazed chicken, an array of honey cakes, tiny honeyed doughnuts and more. Mary’s baklava was judged by Bronwen to be the star bake of the day and she was rewarded with a jar of honey to take home.
Anyway, time for me to buzz off.
Bee Happy!
Laura Rangeley
Committee member