I know nothing (Jon Snow) about Bee Keeping, or blogging for that matter...
But thought it might be fun to find out more. So, after waiting a year for a place, last Saturday I turned up for my first session of bee-keeping school.
We were a nervous bunch, mixed men and women, the youngest about 25 I'd say (sorry if I've got that wrong !) and I'm not hasarding a guess at the oldest... We spent 2 hours scribbling notes, and trying to remember names, and facts - fortunately there were hand-outs at the end.
- Oh did I say - I live in France, so there's the added complication of trying to follow the vocabulary.
At the end we were all issued with plastic traps - Apparently right here and now (when the first flowers are coming out) is the moment to try and catch Asian Hornets (Frelons Asiatiques). They attack bees - and a mix of sweet blackcurrant syrup and Brown beer is their tipple of choice, so if you put this mix in a trap (a plastic bottle with the top cut off and pushed back upside down in the top of the bottle) you coud catch a queen hornet out to make a new colony, if instead she comes to a sticky, beer sodden end you will be saving hundreds of bees...
- so do it - please !
Asian Hornets are only one of the problems, but they are a big problem here. It's thought the beasty was brought into France via Bordeaux in a cargo of Chinese pottery some time around 2005-ish, and since then their nests have been spreading and spreading, ... and demolishing hives of bees.
So I now have a trap in the garden, hanging off the apple tree.
Next Saturday it'll be more practical stuff - cleaning last years equipment
- I'll keep you posted how we get on !