Burleydam buzzing

The Burleydam and District WI met on 5th May. Carolyn Wilde reports:

It is thought that Honeybees make 10,000,000 trips to gather enough nectar to make a single pound of honey. The total distance travelled by all the bees to create this much honey may equal twice the distance around the world.

Their activity for this single pound of honey means a total distance flown of 55,000 miles and over 2,000,000 flowers visited. No wonder that by the end of their lives the worker bees are worn out and their wings tattered. For centuries wild bees have been kept by man to provide honey. The man- made hives mimic the hollow tree trunks and logs that wild bees use to build their colonies.

The honey bee remains a wild creature and all bee keepers can do is to try to ensure the conditions are right in the hive, that the Queen Bee remains healthy and the bees don't swarm. That sounds relatively simple but as bee keepers, Liz and Tony Gentil, explained to Burleydam and District WI at the May meeting, there is a great deal to learn about, as well as from, honey bees.

As well as producing honey, bees play a vital role in pollinating plants for food and other crops. It is estimated that a third of the food we eat depends on the bee for its continued production. Bees are under threat across the world for a variety of reasons and WI members attending the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall next month will vote on a resolution calling for more research into the health of honey bees.

The competition for a flower arrangement in a honey jar was judged by Tony Gentil. The winner was Sheila Beeston, second Margaret Blackburn and third Sarah Lunt.

The speaker on 2 June will be Daphne Ashby, talking about her latest exhibition "Embroidery – an ongoing story".

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