\n\t \n<\/p>\n
\n\tOur programme continued with a talk by Alun James on the Joys of Bee Keeping. Alun began his talk with a brief history of bee keeping. The honey bee has certainly been around for a long time – fossilized remains date back some 135 million years. Some of the earliest records of bee keeping are to be found in prehistoric drawings.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe Egyptians practised a form of bee keeping using simple hives and the beeswax was used in embalming and also turned into writing tablets. Jars of honey were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAlun’s grandfather was a bee keeper and so it was that Alun decided to carry on the family tradition. A friend happened to be downsizing and so Alun was able to get the equipment needed for him to start his new hobby. Following a trip to Ammanford to a bee auction the nuclear collection of bees purchased was brought back to Cardiff and after a few incidents all were safely installed in their new homes.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAlun then went on to explain the structure of modern hives – honey bees are social insects and form a colony in the hive. This is made up of the queen, whose sole purpose is to lay eggs, female worker bees who collect the nectar to produce honey and male drones whose function is to mate with the females.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOnce the honey has been deposited in a cell it is capped off with a wax coating. The moisture content of honey is very important and should be no more than 20%. Alun explained how the honey was collected and all the steps that have to be adhered to in order to gain a hygiene rating of 5 so that it can be sold.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tBees perform a waggle dance – this is a form of communication between the bees giving information about where to go for the best sources of food. By measuring the angle of the dance in relation to the sun and the length of time the bee waggled its abdomen researchers have been able to map the distances and locations where bees forage.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn winter damp can be a problem for bees and supplementary honey is provided for them as food. Alun finished his talk by telling us of the problems that can be encountered such as the varroa mite. Pesticides are also a problem and in parts of Sichuan province in China bees have been wiped out and the pear orchards have to be fertilised by hand to sustain the fruit industry.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAlun has a colony of bees at Insole Court and jars of his honey can also be purchased there. Bees are very important as some one third of human food is dependant on pollination by bees. It is good that this is a flourishing hobby and anyone interested should contact Cardiff beekeepers (www.cardiffbeekeepers.co.uk)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tAfter all the cold weather and snow it was good to have a reminder that Spring was just round the corner. We were treated to a fashion show by M&Co organised by Lorraine, the manager of the Penarth branch assisted by Jill and Cineade.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOur models for the evening were Sandra, Jill, Irene and Christine. It was good of our members to give up time to choose their outfits for the night but they all looked very glamorous on the catwalk. I am sure we all found something we liked and will be going to the shop to see what else they have to offer.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our programme continued with a talk by Alun James on the Joys of Bee Keeping. Alun began his talk with a brief history of bee keeping. The honey bee has certainly been around for a long time – fossilized remains date back some 135 million years. Some of the earliest records of bee keeping are to be found in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[43],"tags":[303],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-19j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7226,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7226","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":0},"title":"Notice Board Shock","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th February 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 We had a bit of a shock when we found our noticeboard and bee hotel at the Community Orchard flat on the ground. This happened before storms Ciara and Dennis and it is clear that the very damp conditions on this site have rotted the posts. The structure itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Collapsed-7-2-20.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5860,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5860","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":1},"title":"Pollinators Are In Serious Decline","author":"Alan Williams","date":"6th May 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Pollinators Are In Serious Decline Everyone knows that pollinators, i.e. insects that pollinate our flowers and crops, are in serious decline and we are being encouraged to do everything possible to help them, not least by planting flowers, shrubs and trees that can supply accessible pollen. Typical of the advice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Bee-on-Limnanthes-6-15-Comm-Orchard-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7370,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=7370","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":2},"title":"100 Saplings Donated","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Woodland Trust is donating over 100 saplings We were pleased to hear that the Woodland Trust is donating over 100 saplings for our new hedgerow at The Bee Loud Glade. These will be delivered in the Autumn. A number of people have expressed an interest in the best plants for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Picture5-300x228.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5151,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5151","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":3},"title":"The Ivy Bee","author":"Alan Williams","date":"21st December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Spotted in early October on some ivy growing near the Village Shop was this bee, the Ivy Bee - our first record in the parish although it has probably been around for a while. Amazingly this bee was new to Science in 1993 and first recorded in Britain in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14955,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=14955","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":4},"title":"Amazing Photo Of A Honeybee Nest","author":"Alan Williams","date":"14th December 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazing Photo Of A Honeybee Nest\u00a0 Sent in by a resident was this amazing photo of a Honeybee nest in the wild. A local beekeeper pointed out that this will probably not survive the winter. Bee colonies in a hive and sheltered from the elements stand a fair chance of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nature Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Nature Notes","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=49"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Picture9-222x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16687,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16687","url_meta":{"origin":4421,"position":5},"title":"Community Orchard Works","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th February 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group Community Orchard Works The wet weather has delayed much of the activity we had planned to do by now. The Community Orchard is waterlogged, and the annual cut of the Upper Orchid Field has been delayed by the muddy conditions. Despite this, the Welsh, Goldsland and Elizabethan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Items for March 2026"","block_context":{"text":"New Items for March 2026","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=431"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/WWG.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4422,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4421\/revisions\/4422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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