In a recent
Bee Craft there was an article on the use of one of these garden
"gazebo's" as a base for a bee demonstration tent. Essentially 4 legs
with a plastic or canvas top in a flattened pyramid, and perhaps stiffened with
some guy ropes, the legs were spanned with the bee net. There are many types and
sizes available on the market, B & Q, garden centres etc, some can be
obtained with side panels.
This might be
a useful project for the Association, but a little word of warning. The one
which I have met was really more suitable for putting up in the spring and
taking down in the autumn, in other words it was a bit of a @$^*$@! to put up.
It is worth having a good look at the construction and the difficulty of
erection before purchase.
In talking
about bees to people I have found that the presence of live bees is a great
help, a frame in a glass box helps, a proper exhibition hive is better, but a
tent where one could tear a hive apart would be better still.
I wonder what
sort of reaction one would get if one wrote to a school and offered to bring
along this sort of facility with possibility of dressing the little horrors up
in bee suits and letting them get really close. A lot of work, it would need at
least three people, but could be worthwhile. Something that might interest
Janet. My choice of school would be Osbaston Primary, the head there seems keen
to bring in outside interests.
I see there is
a new book out, "Medical Aspects of Beekeeping" by Harry Riches, and
it had not unreasonable reviews, quite reasonably priced too. Might be a useful
addition to our library, many members are interested in this area.
For those
interested in pollen there is an exhibition "Harvest", at the Victoria
& Albert museum with work by Rob Kesseler with pictures of enlarged pollens
and "plates decorated with enlarged images of pollens" the pollens
being taken from the Grizedale Forest. The type and size of plates is
unspecified. At the same time he has another exhibition "digital dioramas
of images relating to Kew" whatever that means, running from 5th to 22nd
April.
I see from the
WBKA Journal that a firm is advertising an expanded metal product for use as a
varroa screen. Considerably cheaper than the epoxy coated mesh, and much more
amenable to treating with a blow lamp, though it is galvanised and the zinc
coating will burn off if too vigourously flamed. When I was working(?), it seems
many years ago, this type of material was used for guards for machines, not at
all nice to handle, many rough edges but very robust.
Might be an
idea for the Association to purchase a big sheet, though it is not easy to cut
up unless you have the right equipment.
Dick Sadler,
2/4/01,
This was the title of Len Dixon’s talk to the association
last month. He admitted that his beekeeping
began when an interest in local history led him to the wax chandlers livery hall
on an open day. As his interest is history he whizzed through the history of
beekeeping from ancient wall paintings showing honey gathering in Spain in 6000
BC to modern honey hunting in Nepal, using very similar techniques. The
“domestication” of bees, meaning bee keeping rather than honey gathering was
possibly begun in Egypt where it is depicted as ‘Food of the Gods’ and it
was already going on in Greece in 750 BC. Honey is mentioned many times in the
bible and in mythology but it was not until the bee space was discovered that
modern hives with seperate honey storing areas came into practice and stopped
the unnecessary destruction of colonies in order to harvest the honey.
He told a lovely story:
“.... the bees wanted a silver hive and their sting to be
fatal so that they would be respected. But God was wrath and said that they
should live in houses made of straw or osier covered in dung and they would
themselves die when they stung”. Which brought us neatly to old beekeeping in
Herefordshire where there can still be found wicker hives of woven willow
covered with dung. Then we were shown some marvellous slides made from a slide
show of “Mr Meenham”, the Herefordshire bee man, who travelled around in a
horse drawn wagon, stopping in the villages to show his slides to educate the
people about bees. This was between
1900-1910.
It was an interesting talk and a very pleasant evening .
Bridget
Honey and Orange
Loaf
2oz margarine
10oz local honey
9oz SR flour
1oz mixed peel
1 egg
pinch of salt
Grated rind of half a large
orange
Juice of one large orange
Grease & line a 1lb loaf
tin.
Cream the honey and
margarine well.
Add beaten egg and grated
rind.
Sift flour and salt and add
them alternately with the orange juice.
Add mixed peel.
Put in the greased &
lined tin and bake at gas mark 3 325oF
for 1 - 1 ¼ hours.
The ungrated peel of the
orange can be used too in the cake.
Remove the pith from the
peel & cut peel into small pieces.
Place in a small saucepan
and just cover with water.
Add 1 tbs. of sugar or
honey.
Boil until the peel is soft.
Graham
Arrive Buckfast at 12.00. Get off coach. Go for a wee. Wash
hands. Go to the restaurant for dinner. Look around abbey gardens and church.
Meet Brother Daniel Smyth for tour of the beekeeping facilities.
The tour is in two halves. Firstly to the home apiary for
an open hive demo from Peter Donovan who was Brother Adams assistant for over 60
years. The bees will be so quiet that we won't need veils. This is followed by a
look inside the bee house where there are some interesting bits and bobs along
with a lot of history about the breeding of the Buckfast bee.
The second part of the tour is to the honey house again
with lots of history.
The tour ends at 4.00 with time to look around the abbey
shop, monastic produce shop and book shop before leaving at about 5.00.
There is no cost for the tour but we will be asked for a
donation.
Charity Number : 1014600
