Delivering "Awareness of Bees & their Importance in the Environment"
Award-winning beekeeper
We also stock a wide range of handmade items made by ourselves using beeswax and honey from our own beehives.
Operating as usual
06/09/2024
My prompt sheet for yesterday's new/revised talk at Stourbridge U3A. Nothing more satisfying than see 120 adults laughing about poo 💩 🤣🤣🤣!!!
Amazing venue too although those cameras/screen didn't do me any favours 😖🤭
Today finds me at the Langley Friday Club in Oldbury. My 'main' talk, so back in my comfort zone 😁🐝🐝🐝
04/09/2024
Mmmmmm doesn't get fresher than this, still on the hives this time yesterday 🤤🤤
Thank you for the support shown to Wistanwick WI from the extra Visitors last night. As I said, I don't usually advertise talks but this was different.
With 10 talks to deliver over the next two weeks, my vocal chords will benefit from our delicious, award winning honey 🍯
Honey available in Wellington, Telford from The Little Green Pantry
02/09/2024
Forget bothering to see Oasis, tomorrow night's entertainment will bee so much better 🤣🤣🤣
Please try to pop along to support this small WI group. No expectations or commitments just a lovely evening out.
Ladies (workers) only. But men (drones) don't feel like you're missing out, simply book me for your local group (gardening, PROBUS, U3A etc)
01/09/2024
I am often asked where people can hear my talk about bees. The adult focused talk NOT children's workshops!!!!
Well, if you're a lady and available this Tuesday, the Wistanwick WI are inviting Visitors along to help support their numbers.
So ladies, finally your chance to come along to hear me drone on. Just £3 on the door. Bring a friend, I guarantee if you have a sense of humour, you'll love it!! 🤣🤣🐝🐝🐝
28/08/2024
Request of help 🙏
Lady followers from Market Drayton/Newport (Shropshire) area... fancy a great night out for just £3?
Next Tuesday evening (3rd September) I'm booked to deliver my talk to a local but very small WI group. They would really love for extra Visitors that evening.
Just £3 & no commitment or pressure to join. Just turn up, pay your 'dues' and enjoy a great evening.
My talks are informative, interesting and, most importantly, entertaining 🤣🤣🤭
Please help to support a small group 🙏
DM, WhatsApp or text me for the address. Bee there (19h15) or bee square. Alison 😘😘😘
We LOVE event work 🥰
So many wonderful, engaging and interesting people to meet (but that's enough about the 'lovely Steve'!)
Seriously we do love what we do and hope we make a difference to people's perception of bees in the environment.
When we get home, the best bit is to release our lovely girls (& Dave). This is the sequence of events... hey and just wait until tomorrow when I show you what happened whilst I was taking photos involving a hornet 😱😱
26/08/2024
Hard at it this morning 🤣🤣🤣
The sun is out, the forecast is great and we're buzzing to show you Abeegail Stingbottom at Summer Fiesta Weston Park
Not ticketed, so what you waiting for? Jump in the car and get yourselves to Weston Park Summer Fiesta 🥰🐝🌭🍕🍟🎶🎶🍦
Sunday 25th & Monday 26th
WESTON PARK - SUMMER FIESTA
Looking for a great day out this Bank Holiday weekend? Then come along to this fab event 😍😍
Amazing stalls, children's activities, food and music 🎶
Weston Park
18/08/2024
This really has to bee my favourite moment captured today Shropshire Petals . This young lad was totally engaged with his Grandpa's guidance on what was happening in the observation hive.
Grandpa is a Beekeeper too but, before we realised, grandson was pointing out so many things... Abeegail Stingbottom (the Queen), drones, housekeeper bees, nurse bees etc. My heart totally melted 🫠
Shropshire Festivals
17/08/2024
Buzzing to Bee there tomorrow, the final day.
Please book the last few tickets available. Then see the pollinators together with amazing pollinator-friendly flowers.
What's not to like?? 🐝🐝🐝🌻🌼🪻⚘️🌺🍯
Very excited to confirm we will be at the fantastic Shropshire Petals Flower Fields this Sunday (18th) with Abeegail Stingbottom and the Girls on Tour live honey bee observation hive 🐝🐝🐝
Having been featured on national TV this week, tickets are selling well, so if you want to be part of this amazing experience and beautiful photo opportunity, see link below. This is the LAST day for 2024. So don't delay... 💐🌸💮🪷🏵🌹🥀🌺🌻🌼🌷🪻⚘️
Shropshire Petals
https://www.shropshirepetals.com/pages/visit-the-flower-field
Bee Wolf Wasp
I had the privilege to witness and video an incredible sight this morning, a female Bee Wolf Wasp borrowing into her sandy nest whilst carrying her prey... a paralysed honey bee 😱
Once rare in the UK (now widespread), the female hunts honey bees, and stings them into paralysis then buries around six bees per one egg she lays. She then releases a chemical to prevent harmful bacteria and fungi growth. She then seals the chamber with sand.
Once the egg hatches into a larvae, it consumes the honey bees before spinning a cocoon around itself ready to emerge next spring.
Absolutely amazing experience to witness but hopefully not too close to my hives 🐝🐝🤣🤣
02/08/2024
Meant to share this yesterday!
Move 'timer' onto 01:08:00
Clare Ashford - 01/08/2024 - BBC Sounds Clare's here to brighten up your mid-morning with music, conversation and updates.
When things go right 😀🥳
Cast your mind back to 23rd June (or look below at the video about Laying Workers)
After we shook out the naughty bees, the rest returned back to their hive. I then placed a virgin queen in a Queen Introduction Cage between two brood frames but did not release her for a couple of days.
Just take a look 👀 at just how excited the bees were once they could meet her properly.
I'm delighted to say that, having left them in peace for a few weeks, she's been out on a very successful mating flight 😉😉😉🤭 and is now prolifically laying eggs. There are already lots (& lots) of brood in all stages 🎉
It's great when it all works perfectly especially for a colony which would've been doomed without intervention 👏💪🐝🐝
Gotta love nosey Scout bees!! 🥰
Each spring time, we place a 'bait hive' on our shed roof even though we only have one full hive in the garden.
We are surrounded by woodland and locally some very old properties with feral colonies in chimneys etc
Normally we 'catch' at least two swarms using this method and they always go on to be healthy, calm yet productive bees. This year nothing. But that doesn't surprise me as, due to the weather in the UK, is so abysmal there's a noticeable lack of pollinators in general 😳
A 17th century beekeepers proverb goes...
A swarm in May is worth a load of Hay,
A swarm in June, a silver spoon
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly 😕
Hey ho, it's fun either way 😉 😜
15/07/2024
Developing Queen honey bee 🐝
I was so lucky to have got these images in focus and so detailed of a Queen larva swimming around in a pool of royal jelly, whilst being cared for by Nurse bees.
When a colony of honey bees decide they need a new Queen, they select certain young larvae and feed a richer diet than future 'worker' bees ♀️
They are ALL fed with a little pollen, nectar and royal jelly for three days but royal jelly is not then fed to female worker bee larvae for the next three days.
The difference between a Queen bee and worker bee (both female) is simply that the Queen bee has reproductive organs so has the ability to mate then lay fertilised eggs. A worker cannot.
Colonies 'create' new Queens under various conditions ranging from swarming, to supersede a failing Queen or, heaven forbid, she is damaged by a clumsy beekeeper 😱
As always, thank you for reading and following. Please feel free to share my page 🥰
Another success story!
Remember the swarm I reported on last week in Shifnal? They had been there a fair while, so were cold and hungry.
Well I'm delighted to report that they did have a mated queen and after just a few days of settling into the poly nuc, have, not only drawn out the 6 frames, but the Queen has started to lay.
Very pleased with this result. Once they've been checked for health and temper, they will be moved into a full hive so they can prepare for winter survival 💪💪
Those little things you've often wondered about but were afraid to ask 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Got to love beekeeping, keeps you on your toes and every day is a school day!!!
BBKA - The British Beekeepers Association
When the weather forces us to stay indoors and we can't do beekeeping work, what do we do????
We work on our home-made products ready for events.
As proof we make everything ourselves, just take a look 👀👀👀
05/07/2024
There's nothing more likely to get me moving quicker than when Steve says...
"Get a move on to open the gate as the car is filling up with smoke!"
Whilst our smoker is stored in a safe container when travelling between apiaries, sometimes it's like inhaling 20 Woodbines!!! 🚬😱😲
(Showing my age 🤣🤣🤣)
03/07/2024
Due to personal circumstances this year, we've not been actually collecting honey bee swarms but co-ordinating them with fellow beekeepers.
Today, we made an exception for this little swarm in Shifnal. Now in quarantine and hopefully okay as, apparently, they'd been 'hanging around' for quite some time 😲🙄
01/07/2024
How do you like your honey?
Here in Alison's Bee Class Kitchen, we LOVE drizzling our award-winning sticky stuff over a yummy bowl of yoghurt from Lancashire Farm Dairies topped with granola
Mmmmmmmm! 🤤🤤🤤🤤
30/06/2024
All set up and ready to go! 💪
This is my 5th day working non-stop (after sympathy here 🎻)... from 177 x 4 year olds, then three days full on event work.
I'd like to think I could have a day off tomorrow. 😴 No chance 🫣🥵 bee work to do!! 🐝🐝
Although really looking forward to a glass or three tonight 🍾🥂🍹🍸🍷🥴🥴
29/06/2024
I'm proper 'buzzing' this morning, especially when my mate James actually said "Ahhhh yes, I remember you from last year!!"
Once met, never forgotten 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂
Love Cheese James Martin
28/06/2024
And this is why we make reusable beeswax food wraps, perfect for so many uses in the kitchen and incredibly sustainable. All hand made by Steve and myself.
We've never increased our prices either although our costs have increased substantially (cotton, energy costs)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw00eqqk4dro?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1mCnlX-2USWfInS_iN1H1gu69c4R34ACJYOmB-21dPExVnOStRYsVuZt8_aem_YCnx3GSgPcPLpu4gdggB9g
Ukraine: How beeswax could help war-hit families save food Scientists develop new beeswax wraps to help families preserve food in war zones.
27/06/2024
My work for the last two days hasn't involved visiting my apiaries, a place full of excitable little buzzy bees, but instead visiting two amazing nursery schools, full of excitable little 4 years olds!!👶👧👦
Over the two days, I've met 177 of them in total and, hopefully, reassured them why they should not fear bees but respect and love them 🙏💪
Filling their enquiring minds about the awareness of bees and their importance in the environment is an honour and great fun too 😀 🤩
Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Laura Barrett, Heraclio Alvarez, John Wheel, Ali Korkmaz, Борислав Станчев, Ali Stephenson, Marek Walczak, Krystelle Mischenko-Geissler, Cédric Ginisty, Michelle Reynolds
QUEEN BEE Introduction!!
An interesting follow up video from Sunday's colony , which had 'laying workers'.
We've now placed a virgin Queen in a 'Queen Introduction Cage', in hope the queenless colony will accept her. By the time they've eaten the fondant barrier within the cage, they will be familiar with her pheromones.
Go on, admit it, this is better than Love Island! 🫣🤣🤣🤣
She was a tinker in and out of that cage, I was glad to get the job done. Now trying to cool down in the dark room!!!
Interested about our precious honey bees? I love, live, breath for them! I do not profess to being an expert in any way but have enough knowledge to pass on to many ‘audiences’ ranging from pre-school groups, primary schools, social groups (WI, PROBUS, U3A, Rotary Club, Gardening Societies, retirement groups)... right through to Beekeeping for Beginners to those interested in taking up the craft.
My working partnerships include the National Trust, Telford & Wrekin Council, Telford Town Park, Travelodge, Craemer.
As an ethical spin off, I also run a successful reusuable beeswax food wrap business. See the linked page for more details. www.facebook.com/beeswaxfoodwrapstelford
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