When I got home that night I wanted to try it on again, just to be sure I could sort out which zip went where etc on my own.
So having got it on, I decided to leave it on to show the family - so when Marc came home I was sat watching the telly - fully kitted out - he nearly had a heart attack !
Just as well I bought it this week, as with the weather being sunny, at bee school we were instructed to kit up straight away, and followed the experienced members to check out the hives. There are two separate groups of hives, one of about ten, the other a more recent group of six. We split into two groups - for all the world looking like the cast of some science fiction film, about to enter a contaminated area!
I was in the group checking out the six more recent hives. two were a bit quiet - according to our mentors - and may be combined to make one, more healthy, population some time soon. The other four were all thriving, each with about six of their ten frames covered in bees. In one we spotted the queen - bigger than the worker bees with an orangey striped abdomen, and she was crawling over the cells with less wing activity than the other workers.
Each time we opened a hive, some smoke was puffed in - but not as much as I expected. We were instructed to stand behind the hives, or at the sides - not in front which is the normal flight path for bees returning with pollen and nectar. You could see the pollen bright yellow in two pouches on their legs. Soon the air was quite full of bees flying around us, and several landed on me - sometimes on the veil in front of my face - which was quite disconcerting. Also, as the veil is held wide from the head, you feel quite vulnerable around the neck - but on this visit the suit wasn't breached!
I'm not sure whether, like the bees, I was relaxed by the smoke, or if I was more tense about the experience than I realised, but afterwards, when we went back to the meeting room, and later at home, I was really tired, literally could feel myself dropping off! So, to any insomniacs - you need to get down with the bees!
One of the guys showed us an attachment he has made which can be bolted over the hive entry to provide a sheltered awning type thing with the "walls" of the awning made of sturdy open plastic mesh - mesh of a critical size so that the bees can get through it, but not Hornets. It was a bit Heath Robinson, but if it works ... Apparently not to be used before 1st of August, as it's thought prior to that you don't want to stop any young queen bees getting out for their mating flight, and the biggest probem from hornets is late summer, when they pick off the bees returning to the hive, as they land on the ledge just in front of the entrance.
Afterwards we had a talk from a retired professional beekeeper. He used to have 500 hives, which he moved around in batches of 50 at a time, to make the most of different crops in flower : Colza, Alcacia, Chestnut trees... Now that he's retired he's down to only a couple of hundred ! He also showed us a sort of drawer attachment thing that can be used for collecting pollen - which is then marketed alongside honey as a sort of super food, claimed to keep you young looking, healthy etc etc !
And finally for this week - I bumped into one of my neighbours at the supermarket - As we exchanged news, I mentioned that I was attending bee-keeping lessons, and may at some point in the future be getting a hive. She was very enthusiastic - saying her mother used to keep bees locally, and that if I wanted I could put one in her garden - so that was a positive result ! Now just need to make sure none of the other neighbours have any objections - 1 down, 3 to go!