March events: Grow your own at Wisley

The weather forecasters are about to confirm that March 2013 has been the coldest on record since 1962.  What a good job we had some events booked to keep us warm....

There was a rumour that on 23rd and 24th March last year the temperature at RHS Wisley was 20'c and they ran out of ice-cream.  What a difference a year makes....

This year Wisley shivered throughout its "grow your own" event.  Some very hardy bee keepers from across Surrey paddled on the waterlogged ground (in the tent!) and sheltered from the snow!

Under the banner of Surrey Bee keepers volunteers from the different divisions manned the tent to promote bee keeping.  The company was excellent and sharing the chores and joys of running an event like this helped us all make new bee keeping friends.  Wisley saw over 3,000 visitors over the weekend and we sold over £400 worth of honey, which in the light of the horrific weather, is nothing short of amazing.

 

 

It may have stopped snowing by the Sunday but it still felt like -5'C so we practised our clustering skills to keep warm!

Wisley had some great feedback about the overall event so we will be crossing our fingers ( once they've thawed out!) that we are invited back again on a warmer day!

March: Herald of Spring Bourne Hall

On 2nd and 3rd March , ten of our members spent an enjoyable weekend representing Epsom Bee keepers at the Herald of Spring event at Bourne Hall.  Jeremy Harte, Museum Curator, very kindly provided us with space in the museum to set up a display to inform the public about bee keeping, advertise our division of the BBKA (British Bee keepers Association) the courses we run and to sell honey.

 

The theme for this year's "Herald of spring" was medieval magic and medicines so the medicinal use of the products of the hive fitted the brief well and Jeremy prepared a very professional set of information display boards about medieval bee keeping and  products of the hive which we get to keep so a big "thank you" goes to him.

So over the course of the weekend we handed out leaflets, sold honey, helped children roll candles and  "talked bee keeping" to a very interested and enthusiastic public.  Gill Futcher and Pete Smith kindly donated honey to taste and this proved a real crowd puller.  It was very interesting to see how divided people were about taste preferences.  Both honeys were enjoyed and sold well along with a number of other bee keepers honeys. In fact we sold out of most!

I would like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who helped - especially my able assistant Indigo Manley who helped me accost numerous members of the public and invite them to visit our stand.  (She was also much better at candle rolling than I was - but don't tell her!)

The weekend certainly raised awareness about and the profile of the division - and most importantly the bee keeping! I am hoping we will be invited back next year!