I have been keeping bees and mentoring new bee keepers for almost 18 years.
It's not my day job!
However, these unprecedented times have turned the self employment world upside down. Whilst we are all trying to figure out what the new "normal" will look like, my bees are a constant. They and nature and busy reacting to the seasons completely unaware and untouched by the currant world situation. There isn't a weeks goes by that I don't learn something new from them.
Whilst all the currant Beginners Courses are postponed I have been posting Bee Facts on my social media feeds, by popular request I am now listening them all together. Enjoy!
If you. have any questions, nip over to Twitter @AndieHill105 and Instagram, andie.hill, I will try and answer them.
It's not my day job!
However, these unprecedented times have turned the self employment world upside down. Whilst we are all trying to figure out what the new "normal" will look like, my bees are a constant. They and nature and busy reacting to the seasons completely unaware and untouched by the currant world situation. There isn't a weeks goes by that I don't learn something new from them.
Whilst all the currant Beginners Courses are postponed I have been posting Bee Facts on my social media feeds, by popular request I am now listening them all together. Enjoy!
If you. have any questions, nip over to Twitter @AndieHill105 and Instagram, andie.hill, I will try and answer them.
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Medieval monks used bees wax to coat the twine they used to bind their manuscripts together. It made the binding stronger and stopped it from knotting. Wax is still used in bookbinding today.
worried about the economy? Don’t be. bees are kept on the top of the
Bank of England
& it is said so long as they stay there the economy will thrive. They also used to appear on the bank notes.
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The hexagon shape allows for the greatest number of cells per area, honeybees offset each side to to add strength & tilting the cells at 13 dgs stops the honey running out. The hexagon is one of the strongest structures in nature.
Research shows that bees have a midday lull in flights when there is a halt to the colony weight gain. This may correspond with a high noon lull in nectar secretion or simply because the waggle dance becomes ineffective in the overhead sun.
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During their lives honeybees do many jobs. At 10-12 days old they produce #wax from glands under their abdomen then help to build comb. At 17-18 days the glands atrophy, but bees have the ability 2 reactivate them if the colony requires e.g. after swarming.
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Mead is made from Honey, water & yeast. Monks produced it as a by-product of making candles but Ancient Egyptians, Mayans and Vikings believed it 2 b a health elixir. Studies in Sweden suggest it may b of help in the fight against antibiotic resistance
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Did you know, honeybees use dance to communicate the location of good nectar and pollen sources to other bees in the hive?. They also use it to recruit other foragers, it’s called a waggle dance.
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Wax resist dying was used in 4th C BC Egypt to wrap mummies. Fabric was soaked in wax then scratched away with a stylus. Today we call this “batik”. The process of applying wax, dying and washing allows artist to build up complex patterns.
On a hot July day a dozen honeybees fanning strongly across an entrance 25cm wide, produce an air flow through the hive of 50-60 litres per minute.
The composition of honey depends on: plant source, weather, soil, and several other factors…no two honeys are the same; that’s any hive, every season, every year…always different. Like fine wine.