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Worcestershire’s Award Winning Bee Keeper Rebecca Sealey Guest Blog.
Last year we contacted Worcestershire Beekeepers Association to see if anyone would be interested in keeping bees on our farm, a year on, we now have 10 established Hives and 2 new friends in Rebecca and Gary. We invited Rebecca to tell us and our farm stay guests a littl more….
What sparked your interest in keeping Bees?
My Grandfather kept bees and I always had a jar of his honey in the kitchen cupboard with a label on it ‘Rebecca’s Honey’
What was your motivation to keep bees?
I always wanted to keep bees, from the moment I looked in my first hive… obsessed! but now i want to do some good in the world and promote all types of bees not just honeybees.
10 Interesting facts about my Bees
Each colony (hive) is different, busy bees lazy bees, tidy bees messy bees.
Bees have five eyes…
Bees have smelly feet!! Nice clean smelly feet.
Male bees are called Drones and they have extra big compound eyes and no sting.
All the worker bees are female.
Bees fly around 15mph
The queen can lay 2000 eggs a day
There are over 250 types of bee in the uk
Their wings move in a figure of eight and can beat 200 times a second
Bees have wax mirrors glands under their abdomen to produce wax , beeswax is white when it is first produced.
Why should everybody have an interest in bees?
All bees and pollinators are needed to help us produce a varied selection of food for us to choose from. They improve our environments. Sit and watch a bumblebee on a flower closely… watch its proboscis ( tongue) working. Good for our minds .
What do you look for when choosing the ideal home for Bees?
Good homes for bees are areas with a variety forage for the bees to feed on though out the year, a water source, somewhere they will not be disturbed.
How many bees are typically in a hive?
Around 50 thousand bees in a colony. More bees in summer less bees comming out of winter.
How many jars of honey do you typically get from a hive?
Good question but varies depending on a few factors, weather, the bees working well or not, ( can get lazy bees) the amount of forage around them.average 60lb but can be more or less depending on the season.
How much honey does a bee typically produce? In its lifetime.
About 1/12th of a teaspoon! They work so hard for the good of their colony.
What role do Bees play in the food chain?
Very important role of pollination but not just honeybees, all pollinators.
It would costs over a billion pounds a year to pollinate crops without the pollinators.
What are the main threats to Bees in the UK?
Humans are the main threat as we need to look at the bigger picture more.
Keeping an eye out for pests such as Asian hornet.
How long does a bee live for?
A worker bee in the summer months will live for about 6 weeks very busy working to collect winter food . The winter bees can live for 6 months as they have less work they do not wear themselves out as fast..
Other than Honey what other products do Bees have a role in producing?
Bees produce many things, venom for sting therapy, beeswax .. great for candles and polish, propolis, royal jelly, pollen but my favourite is the apitherapy … in my experience when you take the roof of a hive and the smell of the hive with the warm air rising is lovely to see and smell. The bees getting on with their day with the nice hum of the hive on a nice warm day.
Share your favourite Bee Photo with us.
This was what started my Bee adventure, I was given the opportunity to look after all the kit to get started for 12 months, whilst the person moved house! A Hive and Equipment but no Bees, within a week a swarm of Bees moved themselves into the hive, It was meant to bee….
Interested in learning more? You can book a ‘Meet The Bees Workshop’ with Rebecca at Oaks Barn Farm through the following link:
https://visitoaksbarnfarm.wpcomstaging.com/meet-the-bees/
