I have to start with an apology and a warning!

First I apologise for the absence of last week’s blog. The week flew by and before I knew it I was half way through last week when I realised I still had not done the blog from the week before!

The warning… this is two blogs in one… so make yourself a cuppa, or pour a glass of wine because it could be a long one!

The week of 17th June got off to a great start. I gave a couple of talks at Monks Risborough School. They were performed as two assembly’s. The children, as always, and I know I keep saying it but it’s true, were fantastic. There was a sticky moment with the older age group assembly when one of the older boys asked why the drones die having mated with the queen. I glanced around at a couple of the teachers who stared me out and I said “well, a part of their appendage comes away having mated and so they die.” Feeling more than satisfied with my answer I quickly pointed to the next person who wanted to ask a question who happened to be a girl and she said “what does appendage mean?” One of the teachers very kindly stepped in and said “we can discuss that further in class!” And relax, I had gone to talk to the children about the bees not the birds and the bees! Upon leaving the science teacher who had booked me came up to the car, as I was loading up my equipment, and thanked me for the talks. She said she was so impressed with the whole experience she would like to pay twice as she felt I had earned it! I charge per visit, not talk, but she insisted so I didn’t argue.

On the Wednesday I went to Sunrise Senior Living in Beaconsfield and they really enjoyed the talk. The woman who booked me said she was amazed to see they stayed awake for the hour of my talk! One lovely lady’s husband had been a beekeeper and she told me some lovely stories about spinning the honey etc. And another lady was looking at the book noticed I was born in Honeypot Lane, not only did she know the area, as she too was from that part of the world, so we took a trip down memory lane together, she also said it was my destiny to work with honeybees! I could not argue with that..

My final talk of that week was at The Aylesbury Primary Referral Unit. I have done a talk at one of their units in Chesham about two months ago. These referral units are for children who have been excluded from school for one reason or another. I was told before I started that two of the children would definitely not make it through the talk so not to take it personally. Well… they all sat absolutely still and engrossed for the whole time and one little lad in particular seemed to know a lot of the answers. I asked him if his parents were beekeepers. “No,” he said “A lady like you came to my other school and gave a talk about the honeybees.” One of the teachers asked if it was The Oaks.. “Yes!” he said. Well, that was the other referral unit I gave a talk to and I was so impressed - and so were the teachers - he had remembered so much! Today I received a lovely email from the lady who organised my talk.. see below

Hi Meriet

Thanks for the fascinating talk; the children were all enthralled and have been chatting about what they learned since then.

Please could you send me an address to forward their thank you letters.

It just gets better and better.. being paid twice and thank you letters!

Onward to the bee inspection on the 22nd June. It has been appalling weather recently so I grabbed the first moment I could to zip in to the hives to check all was still ok. I was very dismayed to see that two of my hives were not pulling out comb for the queens and so she was only laying across 6 frames and also in my original hive, (The Green Hive), there was no brood but there were eggs. I did, however find the queens who had eluded me previously and now need marking! Below are a couple of pictures of the two queens I couldn’t find before. One of them, Amelie’s queen, please note, is surrounded by her attendants, almost in a perfect circle as per the picture in my book on page 49.

Talking of Amelie’s queen. I had a lovely email from her father saying she is doing this talk to the Brownies about the honeybees. She wrote to a couple of people who sell equipment for beekeepers and they sent her a couple of free bee suits, one for now and one for when she is older, gloves, a smoker and a hive tool! I will endeavour to find out who they are and thank them very much. Now that’s PR if ever there was. I will name them as soon as I find out who they are. It’s the least I can do. Not only will I name them but I will tweet about them too!  

And so it is to last week, last Monday to be precise when I stepped back in time into my old Primary School, then called Stag Lane, but now Chorleywood Primary. It was a lovely feeling going back to a school in which I had been very happy. I can remember most of the children in my class and I can definitely recall the names of all the teachers I had when I was there. My only disappointment was the Stag’s Head, under which I had spent a quite afew times with my hands on my head, had gone! I really wanted to re-create a a picture of me, once again, standing underneath with said hands on head! Never mind. I felt my Headmaster, Mr Powell, would have been very surprised but also very proud to see me talking to the Junior Assembly. I took a picture with me that was taken in my final year and showed it to the children. I think they were more surprised that camera’s had been invented in those days let alone anything else!   Moving on.. I had an amazing welcome and the children, I repeat myself I know, were great. It was at the end of the day and the teachers were having to drag them back to their classes to be collected by their parents after school. They were bursting with questions about the bees. I accidentally left some equipment there and went yesterday to retrieve it and one of the office staff said they were all still buzzing about the visit, not only in the classrooms but also staff rooms! Apparently the children are still hunting out the honeybees during their play time, which, is what my visits and my book are all about; sparking interest in the honeybees.

The rest of my week was spent networking! I had an interesting meeting and evening at the Institute of Directors with a Publisher who is sending me a proposal. This is the second time we have spoken. I went to a lovely breakfast meeting at Moor Park Golf Club which is always a good chance to mingle with people from all types of businesses. And, finally to round the week off, I went to Lady Val’s Network luncheon in London, in Browns Court Rooms. This is always a great networking opportunity. They always have very good speakers, this time it was Jon Snow, who turned out to be an extremely interesting man. I am about to copy and paste what I put up on FaceBook about that day so if you have read that.. skip the next paragraph!

What a great luncheon! Tracy James, Lady Val et moi! Jon Snow was very good.. I know my mother is watching me.. how? I’ll tell ya.. Jon told a very touching story about how he learned his mother had alopecia that involved him at the age of 8 and a “Jacqmar” headscarf.. After his talk, ( I was sitting at his table), I commented that it was unusual for an 8 year old boy to notice the make of a headscarf and to carry the name with him through to adulthood. He said it was the distinctive Signature of Jacqmar on the head scarf that made him remember it. It was with great pride I told him that the signature was my mother’s hand.. She had designed it based on her handwriting for the company! I like to think she was telling me she was there. Lady Val was charming as always and Jenny Garrett delivered an excellent thought provoking workshop. The whole afternoon was relaxing, informative and worthwhile in so many ways.. Feeling uplifted by the Jacqmar incident.. I popped along to Covent Garden and bought myself the ultimate canvas bag. My great Aunts, on my fathers side, were all Theosophists and travelled the world as single determined feminists in the 1800’s armed with canvas bags and forward thinking ideals.. I think today they would be smiling and hopefully passing on their tremendous strength and energy which saw them through to their 90’s! Here’s to the next 30 years.. I’ve only just begun!

Finally.. I get to the bit you have probably been waiting for.. The latest bee inspection.

Last week I was left feeling very concerned as little brood had appeared in any of the hives and in one in particular there was no brood left at all. I called Bill Fisher, a member of our club, former Chairman to be precise, and an exceedingly knowledgable beekeeper. He said the reason was probably because of the bad weather when the queens stop laying. So things come to a halt. I told him about my concerns that the bees were not pulling out comb for the queens to lay in in any of the hives and that they seem to be stuck on laying on between four and six frames. Bill suggested I place a frame of partly pulled comb, taken from another part of the hive, in between two brood frames. The bees do not like this interruption to their flow so will quickly pull out and build up the wax on that frame so the queen can lay. I did this and wa-hay.. this week I went in, and as if by magic, helped I am sure, by the lovely weather we have been having this week as well, they had spread on to eight frames in all of the hives. Good job girls. The little nuc is still slow but Bill suggested I leave it as it is and keep an eye on it. the queen is there and laying, but no flying bees as yet bringing in the goods. They do have stores in there so I will continue to watch and wait. At least I have a spare laying queen per chance anything should go wrong in one of the other hives.

I will leave you with an image I just took of a hive I have in my wild garden. No bees in there, it is just for show as my husband is allergic to bee stings! The wild garden has been a real success this year, attracting bees of all kinds and wonderful butterflies. I urge everyone to make space for a patch of wilderness in there garden, no matter how big or small it will put a wonderful smile on your fact when you see what comes up and what flies in to enjoy and spread the wild flower word!

Have a wonderful week. Enjoy the sunshine.