A question that is guaranteed to come up from members of the public who buy honey from local beekeepers is “what have the bees been feeding on”? It is easy to answer if you are looking at rolling fields of lavender that stretch for miles in front of you or sitting in the Highlands of Scotland watching haggis roam through a Glen of heather. It is not so easy in an urban environment .This is where two of our members stepped into help.

They came with all sorts of specialist kit that included microscopes (where you could see pollen on a digital display)pipettes,slides,analysing trays and various mixing solutions. Winterbourne Horticultural Centre was transformed into a mini science lab for the morning.

The honey was mixed in one of these solutions and then span in a centrifuge to separate the pollen which was then put under a microscope for analysis. It was fascinating seeing some of the different shapes of the pollen.

Some of the plants that we identified were: ivy, dogwood, bramble, mint, astrantia and potentilla.

During the analysing ,we had the toaster on the go and we tried various types of honey on fresh toast with “proper butter”.

It was a really interesting way to spend a Saturday morning.