Bee Crawl

[Neils]

We're having a bee crawl on sunday. We're basically going to go around each other's apiaries, see how they're set up, maybe go through a hive or two, get to know each other as bee neighbours and if the weather holds out have a bit of a picnic at the end of it.

Rather than making it purely beekeeping, we're opening it up to partners too so we can hopefully have a bit of a social, probably swap a few gardening tips while were at it and have a jolly old time.

[gavin]

Remember the washing soda! Sounds like fun though.

[Neils]

One of the complaints I hear a lot from people is that they have their bees, do stuff this way, have no idea what the temprament of their bees is actually like compared to anything else and so on, so I'm really looking forward to it. I think everyone who gets an opportunity to see someone else's bees (and how they inspect them) should grasp it with both hands.

[Neils]

Well I'm back. We didn't actually open any hives in the end but we had about 10 of us within a mile or so of each other and we took a bimble around the local area having a look at each other's apiaries. While it would have been nice to see the bees as well I think we were just that little bit too large a group to actually get much done if we'd opened up a hive in each apiary along the way.

Possibly easier to arrange in an urban setting, but I thoroughly recommend it if you get the chance. Good excuse for an urban stroll and a chit-chat along the way.

[Jon]

I used to do bee crawls with my mates in my student days but we had the novel idea of using pubs instead of bees.