It’s been a dreadful year for honey production. The first two years of our project have been characterised with difficult weather conditions so we are not the only ones to say so. Those who have kept bees for more than 30 years in the UK are saying it has been the worst year yet and if it carries on they will stop keeping bees.
Filling the jars
In contrast, the interest of our visitors has escalated partly because they hear of the various problems facing honey bees and they fear for their honey supplies as well as their food in general. Bees pollinate so many foods. In Buckinghamshire there are so few apples because when the blossom was out conditions were wrong. I notice that Herefordshire seems to have suffered less.
Proud moment
Some of our visitors are true stoics. They come to our ‘Meet the Beekeepers’ sessions even when it rains and some venture closer to the hives that the observation platform. One of whom got stung but refused to be daunted.
We have a small amount of honey but it is our first so the pride and excitement wells up and it seems infectious. We have various other sections of the Manor – the managers, the ticket office staff and the cafe crew who have supported us in various ways and they seem almost as pleased as we are.
Jars side on
We decided to put the honey into small jars so we have the maximum number to use either for sale or tasting. Small jars, though, are fiddly bringing their own problems.
Honey is very sticky; a single drop spreads out and a sticky finger print can then move stickiness elsewhere. However, our small team seemed to succeed reasonably well. We learned a little (decant into a jug or measuring cylinder with pouring lip rather than straight into jars!). And then at the end, we learnt just how unstable our stack of jars was as first one jar fell and then it collapsed like a line of dominoes – but more noisily.
Hughenden Buzz 