 |
Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
|
||
|
Bees: making the most of our resourcesby Rosemary Findlater At the Quaker Church morning service very few words were uttered, but the ones that were spoken were very meaningful. John Mudd stood up and quoted “There is no time but the present therefore treasure it with thy heart” by George Fox. The present turned out to be very exciting that afternoon when we went to collect a swarm of bees from a blackthorn hedge which had been spotted earlier in the day. There was a big clump of these humming creatures, and to my astonishment it was possible to put your hand into the clump and they would do nothing; you simply felt a warm mass of gentle energy. My sister and I wore bee keeper’s hoods, but in fact there was no need for them because the bees were not interested in anything but keeping the Queen Bee happy and safe. My sister’s partner Ted had brought a wooden box fitted with sheets of wax on frames, and he cut off the branch and shook the bees gently into the box. The lid was put on the box when most of the bees were inside and a beekeeper’s smoker was lit to blow smoke over the box to encourage the bees to enter it. (The smoke makes them afraid so they go into the box/hive to start making honey which calms them down). The bees who had not entered the box had small holes at the bottom of the box and Ted made a ramp out of a yellow post it note, on which sat a few bees who Ted said were “Welcomers”! (note St. Mary’s!) (or you could say even bees have a disabled ramp). We left a note on the box (it was about 5pm) to say that the bees would be collected at dusk in case anyone decided to investigate the box. It was a “first” for me. Beekeeping is an ancient tradition – thousands of years old. Ted can tell the mood of the bees very quickly, and these were definitely peaceful. They do not like rain or thunderstorms, and are much affected by the weather. The sound of “the murmuring of innumerable bees” was the most wonderful and heart moving, deeply poetic sound. There were about 10,000 bees in this clump Ted estimated, which in honey terms should mean about 30 lbs by August. However, there are many rules and regulations about producing honey hygenically so it is done more as a hobby than a way of earning money. Ted keeps his bees in the orchards of Wilkins Jams in Essex; his favourite honey is that made of borage and the borage is just coming into flower now, so not too long to wait! One could ask what do drones (male bees) do? During the summer they are fed by the female worker bees. One male bee will fertilise the queen, who is then fertile for the next 8 years, this bee then dies (having won the lottery so to speak!). Come September the workers stop feeding the drones and they can be seen being pushed down the ramp by female worker bees, (by now the male bees are very weak from not being fed) and they then die of starvation. One could now ask what use are the drones? The hive cannot survive without them – if there were no male bees the hive would not thrive, literally. They are very community minded and female bees cannot go to other hives – the other bees would kill them. However, the drones can go to other hives. Their social system seems to be quite complicated. I visited the bee hives in July and Ted quickly ascertained that they were in a good mood. He wanted to see the progress of the new hive which contained the swarm we had collected in May; it was doing extremely well and to see the trays covered in the beautiful white waxy honeycomb was a glorious sight. He showed me the queen bee in each hive in her pod and we watched the bees homing in across the neighbouring meadow from the borage field –rather like planes going over our heads in Barnes on their habitual flight-path. I cannot reproduce the photo of the field of borage, but it was such a beautiful blue and the blue sky with perfect fluffy clouds was like looking at the most beautiful painting, peaceful with nature at its full summer peak. A few weeks later I was to discover that the Wilkins’ orchard contained the most delicious Victoria plums. In August I helped with the “spinning” – a large metal drum into which three trays of honeycomb were fitted, and I spun the wheel and could see the honey coming out of the combs onto the wall of the drum where it ran down to the bottom and collected in a great thick liquid mass. This was later siphoned into large buckets and astoundingly that afternoon produced 150lbs of honey!! The next stage was to warm and strain it through muslin to get the pollen and wax out, then the bottling. Alas, Ted cannot sell it because it is not produced according to EEC regulations (which would cost thousands of pounds to comply with) but the honey is delicate and utterly delicious. It is supposed to be very good for you, especially if you eat honey from your local area and can prevent hay fever. Honey also contains propolis and the magical Royal Jelly. To have a jar of Ted’s honey, with a chunk of honeycomb is truly one of life’s delicacies. I hope some of you may have bought some at the St Mary’s Autumn Fair! Bees have been producing honey for thousands of years and no doubt the process of extracting it has been pretty similar through the ages as the method is a simple one if you do it yourself. While this year has had many reports on the diminishing of bees, the swarm we collected this May has really been miraculous as it has been so productive – some years Ted has only filled 30 jars and this was 150 lbs from just the one swarm (another five hives to go!). Nature is truly remarkable and wonderful. From observing the bees we have seen an incredible community of creatures and the beauty of nature is true evidence of God to me. A Riddle:
Who is she? Look upwards for the answer.... |
| |
