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Alnwick Training Apiary - continued
Alnwick Training Apiary Editorial
A Winters tale
A years work
2004 A year of Swarms and wasps
Get the buzz
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A years work
Location: Northumberland
Children from the Wildlife Trust relaxing after looking through beehives
The project was aimed at passing on skills and information to as many people as possible
During the year at the Apiary, 8 trainees worked with mentors to gather sufficient skills to take their 'free bees' to an apiary of their choice.
4 further trainees who wanted to learn only at this stage worked on hives under supervision.
The Apiary saw a visit from the children of the Belford Wild-life Trust 'the Newts' who visited and went through the hives. with an experienced beekeeper
BBC Look North Camera filming hive examination with the Newts
We were all privileged to see a Virgin Queen Honeybee emerge from its cell during the visit.
Fortunately there was a hive where the Queen had been lost and the virgin was placed in a queen cage, sealed in with honey and introduced to its new 'subjects'.
We are pleased to report that this queen successfully mated and started into lay in the early part of September and although given more bees, we must still hope this colony has sufficient bees to survive the Winter.
BBC Look North became involved in the training project in 2003 filming the 'newts' and two trainees at the Apiary and in Rothbury next to the Heather moors, and included a report on their evening news programme, helping still further to spread our story
With the right equipment you really can get close!
Beekeepers usually attend country fairs/shows, both large and small village occasions during June though to end August.
There are a number of purposes, children like to see the bees in the observation hives and the queen which the beekeeper usually marks to make it easier to spot.
The general public, many of whom confuse honeybees and wasps get better identification skills, and learn about the importance of the bee as the main pollinator and its link therefore in the food chain.
Joint show stand at the Morgan Car Owners Rally at Gosforth Park Newcastle with Newcastle Beekeepers
People who might be interested in keeping bees not only get advice and a number of leaflets produced by the British Beekeepers Association that give general advice on this ancient craft.
A Honey Extraction training day, we've never seen as many licked spoons!
Honeybees of course as their name implies produce
honey, and hopefully a surplus, however whilst some honeys can be spun from the honeycomb, eg Clover, others, particularly Rape granulate in the comb and unless removed and spun quickly need to be melted and separated from the wax.
Heather honey is thixotropic and can only be pressed from the comb although much heather honey is sold in its ‘cut comb’ form.
Derelict hives at a nearby abandoned apiary before clean-up
Looking back at our first year from the initial clearing of redundant hives from an adjacent site, the building of shed and toilet, and the raising of colonies and catching of swarms within Northumberland we have had a busy year.
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A well earned break from site preparation, Beekeeping can be an extremely sociable pass-time
We look forward to 2004 and hope the weather is kind and that we can keep on top of the number of colonies required for our new trainee beekeepers.
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