Busy Buzzing

I confess that I think bees are pretty fantastic so when I was invited to BuzzWorks, Hitchin’s Community Bee Garden on Wednesday night I sadly got quite excited. The garden is the brain child of Robin Dartington, a long time bee lover and he proudly gave me a guided tour of the site. Though everything is brand new, there are big plans for the bee garden and Robin hopes that in the near future he will be able to open the site to the public so he can spread the word about what amazing little creature’s bees are. The garden is bee heaven, with all sorts of plants bees love. On Wednesday they seemed to be favouring the lavender and borage flowers.

I then donned a rather attractive, and surprisingly claustrophobic bee outfit and stepped into the hive enclosure. The cunning use of a bamboo fence helps prevent stings as the bees have to fly up and over rather than along the ground where your feet live. I saw the queen bee busily at work, all she does is lay eggs 24/7 which seems like a labour of love.

Sadly, as seems to be the common problem these days, the hives were showing a distinct lack of honey. No one seems to know why bees seem to be suffering at the moment but it’s vital that we find out. Bees are responsible for pollinating, and therefore fertilizing a third of what we eat. No bees, no almonds, courgettes, beans, apples, the list goes on and on….

We sat and chatted over the plight of the bees over a cup of tea and a slice of honey cake while they buzzed around us and I became even more of a honey fanatic than I am already. Save the bees I say.