SARUM U3A

The meeting of Sarum U3A on 17th April was entertained by an informative talk on Bees by Fred Swift – the Wiltshire Beekeeper. He even provided an information sheet full of fascinating data. He has hundreds of hives all over Wiltshire. Not surprisingly he reported that he – and the bees- are six weeks behind this year and that the clusters of bees are small.

He reported that in a good year he can harvest the honey five times but last year he was only able to harvest once. A pound of honey is the equivalent of the life’s work of 300 bees and a flight distance of 2-3 times round the earth; a worker bee will visit up to a hundred flowers during each collection trip. For those with a sweet tooth, Fred informed us that each teaspoon of honey contains 21 calories but is one-and-a-half times sweeter than sugar. He described how the bees dance to show others where the pollen is but that they can adjust those directions with the movement of the sun.

He stressed that bees are far more important for pollinating crops than they are for making honey. Honey bees are reckoned to perform 80% of all crop pollination. British golden bees are good-tempered and productive but susceptible to cold and damp so beekeepers are now trying to cross-breed their bees with much less amenable but hardier black bees. Besides honey and wax, the substance bees make for repairing any holes is an immensely valuable ingredient for pharmaceuticals .

Fred kept everyone entertained and had wonderful array of honey, candles, hand cream and furniture polish for sale. We were astonished to hear that bees eat about eight pounds of honey to make one pound of beeswax.