Month: September 2023

Bumble Bee Conservation Trust

As always, a HUGE Thank You to the Birmingham and District Beekeepers Association for making us so welcome at the Birmingham Honey Show.

Special Thanks also to our 2 Bee Inspired Walsall volunteers for their amazing help on Saturday.

So, we engaged with well over 300 people.

We raised £159.50.

We possibly have 4 new members for BBCT.

We met some great people.

We were overwhelmed with the rise in pollinator awareness, so many people of all ages turning their gardens in to havens for bumblebees.

The weekend left us filled with optimism and hope for the future, we had a lot of fun and talked so much we had sore throats.

We left tired but very happy, calling at a flower known in Stafford known as the Greyhound. A sure source of nectar for thirsty bees!

Ron Rock

Bumble Bee Conversation Trust

Beekeeping experience day at Kuenhe Nagel Aston

Some time ago I was approached by Keunhe Nagel who are interested in housing a bee hive on their company premises in Aston The plans for this are well under way and next spring there will be a hive on site managed by one of our members.
After this  introduction ,I was invited to come and judge their national cake competition , meet some of the staff and let them know a little bit about bees.
Jane joined me and we were made to feel very welcome with exceptionally hospitable hosts.
It all felt a bit surreal as porters took all of the bee displays through the office on a trolley.
We set up our display at lunch time and  the first person I spoke to had bees on his patio in Canada. He actually pays a bee keeper to manage his colony. It looks like I’m moving to Canada!
Then it was down to tasting and judging the cakes( I know. The hardships I have to go through as a beekeeper!)
The site is in quite an industrial district. I had a good look around the area when I was going home(I got lost!) and there seems to be a lot of pockets of greenery and trees.
I’m looking forward to trying some Keuhne Nagel honey next spring/summer
By
Richard James

NATURE BUDDIES BEEKEEPING CLASS

I was approached by Rob the manager of Dorothy Parkes Centre in Smethwick asking if I could run a class about Beekeeping on 2nd Sept for their Nature Buddies students and parents.
I agreed to help out as it was for a good cause. Many thanks to Sam who helped me immensely with honey bee paraphernalia, a virtual hive and other bits and pieces which all came in handy.
The children liked the Bee toys immensely which they could touch and play with.
Finally, everyone thoroughly enjoyed and commended the taste of my honey being way better tasting than any shop bought honey.
Rob contacted me today and commented how well received my class was by all and they would like me to host more classes in the coming weeks. Some local schools have since got in touch with Rob to attend the Beekeeping classes in Sept and Oct.
It seems in the coming weeks and months I’ll be kept busy!

Abid Hussain

Marsh Hill Allotment Open Day

The annual open day was on the 12th August. Due to the fact the allotment had its own apiary they have a stall displaying an observation hive and information for visitors. Also there was a small quantity of honey for sale, unfortunately the honey wasn’t produced from the allotment apiary as the 2 colonies didn’t come through the winter, and the area where the apiary was  before was being developed as below. So there were no colonies on site.
The allotment Committee has gained funding to create a wildflower area with a pond and has given an area to site the new apiary, currently there are 2 colonies but there is space for a total of 6 colonies.
I was there to explain the structure of the colony, the process of honey production and extraction.
Although it was a small affair I had about 15 visitors who were interested in learning more about the honey bee. Amongst the 15 visitors there were about 6 young people who were willing to learn about the bees.
Going forward the committee are looking at having more structured meetings and getting the plot holders more involved. Any honey produced is sold to the plot holders
By Roger Peczek