The best thing about having 'young minds' helping out with the management of our apiary, is their enthusiasm and imagination for our future plans.   Today they excelled themselves, planning a potential new apiary layout which will facilitate more children and visitors around the hives, including those visitors with mobility difficulties.  They also thought about 'what makes the perfect apiary site?' taking into consideration things like trees, frost pockets, pedestrians and a water source...
   They also spent some time trying out design ideas for their 'dream apiary' a place where we can welcome visitors safely, a viewing area and even an internal hive in school... Really proud of their ingenuity and focus,  their ideas are so good, we hope to make them central to the future projects for the bee team, well done everyone!

Today's bee club included just about everything! 
​ All the children were together at the Bee Shed.  Our Junior Certificate children helped teach the 'new bees' about Varroa, including counting the mite drop on  some of the stored boards from the summer.  New Bees had a smoker lesson, learning how to light and use the smokers safely, everyone having a go...
Some children came into the apiary to heft the hives to ensure the bees had enough stores... it was great for them to actually see into the brood box of one of our teaching hives... a double glazed glass wall allows the children to see the bees without disturbing them at all!  Everyone was surprised to see them all moving around, not tightly clustered due to the unusually mild weather, there were even bees flying, most unusual for mid November!

As always, we were proud of the behaviour and respect of the children when working in the apiary, we really do have lucky bees, to have so many attentive beekeepers!

Well, all the sticky uncapping, extracting, sieving, filtering pouring & polishing was worth it... The Bee Team honey did wonderfully at the Kendal Honey Show!
Mrs Harper, Mrs Gorst and I, helped by Lauren and Bobby our weekly bee helpers in The Bee Team, set up our  entries along side the best of Kendal & South Westmorland Beekeepers. 
We were delighted to win the 'blind taste test class' where all the members of the club vote on their favourite... We had success with the baking this year too, with a 2nd with the Honey biscuits and 1st with our honey cake! 
In the coveted 'light honey class' (always tough competition as it has the most entries) we were really proud to be awarded 2nd... and narrowly edging in front of our friendly rival beekeeping school Crossthwaite to win the Schools class.  Our frame of capped honey managed a commendable 3rd.   It was super to have another school there this year with Crossthwaite and judging by their super 1st in the Novice class, we will have some stiff competition next year!
Well done Heron Hill Bees and the children!

With two teams on the go tonight, bee club was busier than ever!
The Advanced and Junior Certificate group covered Varroa and it's effects on our bees and the colony... We looked at a very old frame from a colony that had succumbed to Parasitic Mite Syndrome, spotting the signs of Varroa, from poor dead bees in cells, bees with DWV (Deformed wing virus) and lots of white Varroa poo.... ugggghhh!  We talked about how we are going to manage our hives in the coming season and how we are going to monitor Varroa to ensure it stays well below the level to cause problems to our bees.  The children even spotted a wax moth larvae creeping about on the old frame... so lots of diseases and pests to talk about!

Our 'New Bees' group spent their time looking at where bees live, including investigating our National Hives. They also tried on suits to get used to looking through the mesh veils in preparation for the spring where they will be inspecting the hives.  

We are now lucky enough to have three Bee Teams at Heron Hill!
One of 'new-bees', children learning the basics of beekeeping so they can start looking after our bees in the new season... A new Junior Certificate group... already studying for their exam next year and our Qualified junior beekeepers who are now taking their skills to the next level with more advanced work!
Today our two advanced groups set to work extracting the last of this seasons honey. Mr Tett our beekeeping buddy came along to give expert advice. The children did brilliantly uncapping the frames and spinning them in the extractor. Everyone enjoyed putting their honey into jars to take home (and cleaning up all the extra honey with spoons!)  The Junior Certificate children will be writing all about their sticky afternoon in their diaries for the exam!  The team also prepared our show honey for the Kendal & South Westmorland Beekeepers Honey Show...fingers crossed, we will keep you posted!