Last night was the final beekeeping lesson for my Mon class - a visit to my hive. Above are afew of them that stayed on for a cuppa and piece of delicious honey cake. It was a beautiful warm evening and the bees were well behaved. I have really enjoyed these classes, hopefully I can carry on teaching next year with the Govt wanting to cut funding to night classes I may have to go private - teach from home. Nearly all the adults in my 4 classes this year have gone on to buy a hive and start beekeeping - I am delighted with the outcome - my aim is to get as many people into keeping bees as I can !
The gorgeous honey cake beehive was made by Sue, one of my students. She used an American mold, brought here in NZ. It was so good ! I also received a packet of seeds from one of the other ladies and flowers from another - spoilt or what ?? Just to share the passion I have for these little creatures is enough for me
A wee bit of smoke, I try not to get carried away with the smoker, I don`t believe it does the bees any good - probably sends them into panic mode and I would rather work with them as calmly as possible. I need to open all the boxes for a good look at what is happening plus check for any nasties. It seems to be a strong hive and hopefully hasn`t been affected with spray like my TopBar - more on that disaster in next post ...
One of the new frames broke as I pulled it out, must have been stuck to one under it ! Bees have half filled it, the students were able to see nectar and capped honey, plus afew drones. The honey tastes very sweet - lots of different floral sources around where I live.I have been asked for an interview for the local paper next week and also featured in good magazine - I will make those bees famous yet !!
4 comments:
WOW! That cake! It is totally amazing - how could you break it too eat it?
I was thinking - have you contacted the Council to ask them to put your property on the no spraying of grass verges list?
I wish I had the cake mold. We are having our Christmas dinner at the bee club meeting this week and I would have loved to make such a great cake. Maybe for the spring picnic.
You are doing great work in the interest of bees in your country. Keep it up!
You're an inspiration. Well done and best of luck if the funding from central government dries up.
That is some cake! Your posts are interesting to me as a beginning beekeeper. I'm very much enjoying my hives so far.
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