The conference was convened by James Fearnley, Director of the Apiceutical Research Centre and author of Bee Propolis: Natural Healing from the Hive, and featured also guest speakers from the universities of London, Cardiff, Ljubljana, Bradford and Strathclyde itself.

Can there be common ground between natural beekeeping as understood by the NBKT and those who wish to exploit for commercial gain the medicinal properties of the products of the beehive? A tricky question, not of course conclusively answered at the conference. But this was an important audience for the Trust, and we are grateful to James Fearnley for inviting us along.

Read more about the conference
Read more about the Apiceutical Research Centre

Produced by Falling Tree Productions, “Spirit of the Beehive” explores the mysterious ‘life of bees’ and what, as human beings, we can learn by observing these inspiring creatures and their wondrous ways.

Find out more at http://spiritofthebeehive.blogspot.com

The Symposium, hosted by Neal’s Yard Remedies and activist and campaigner Sam Roddick, addressed the problems facing the bees, their dramatic decline and what can be done to help re-generate the UK bee population.  Guest speakers also included representatives from BugLife, Soil Association, LandLife, PAN UK, Bio Bees, Client Earth and the UK Pesticides Campaign.

The Symposium was held as part of the Neal’s Yard Remedies’ Bee Lovely campaign.

This viewpoint, controversial in the world of science, is changing, albeit at a snail’s pace, thanks in part to recent research carried out at a British university.

A new study undertaken by researchers at the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, concludes that honeybees are capable of exhibiting emotional states similar to that expressed by vertebrate animals such as human beings.

The researchers subjected bees to vigorous shaking designed to simulate a predatory attack. Subjected to this anxiety-like state, the agitated bees displayed expectations of negative outcomes and lower levels of chemicals associated with depression.

Read the full article published on www.care2.com.

Read a summary of the report of the study (published June 2011).

As the future of bees is inextricably linked to the way we care for the earth as a whole we are very pleased that the unique approach to soul ferility, animal husbandry and food quality emodied in biodynamics will be celebrated in Forest Row in Sussex this year, in the immediate vicinity of two of this country’s major biodynamic farms, Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Farm.

Besides an interesting series of talks there will be a range of workshops, delving deeply into subjects such as: Life forces, Land Trusts, Biodynamic Preparations, Water, Food, Seeds and of course, BEES.

Tle long-awaited and highly acclaimed film “Queen of the Sun” will be shown as part of the conference programme.

For further details are available from the Biodynamic Agricultural Association (BDAA) at www.biodynamic.org.uk/events/biodynamic-conference-2011.html

Here is one of our own trustees, Catriona Fagan, making a beautiful skep for her future bees.  On the day before our skepmaking masterclass with fantastic Martin Buckle, a well-known expert in the field, we entertained 22 bee lovers and potential future beekeepers to a series of lively presentations about the many miracles of bee life. Some of our colonies in the adjacent bee garden shwed themselves to our visitors during brief sunny spells.

We are greatly looking forward to welcoming many more people at this lovely site in the months to come.

Three days before the chorion breaks.

Five days the female larva feeds

An extra day the male grub takes.

A week in prison lies the queen;

for thirteen days a worker hides,

A drone develops all unseen,

A fortnight and a day besides.

The total time is just about

a fortnight and a day for mother;

three weeks will bring a worker out’

and three days longer hatch her brother.

{this quaint little aide-memoire was found (unattributed) in “The Story of the Hive” by Canning Williams}

In Bulgaria 10 February is the Feast of Saint Haralampi, the Christian Orthodox Patron Saint of Beekeepers. During Mass worshippers gather around candles placed on consecrated jars of honey.

Beekeeping in traditional hives like upright logs and skeps was still common in Bulgaria until the middle of last century.

Most of us, when asked how a queen bee arises within a colony will explain that it is the sustained administering of special food produced in head glands of the nurse bees that decides the eventual caste of the bee which arises from the egg that was laid in a queen cell and is – in its egg state – identical to all the other eggs laid in hexagonal cells.  Quoting from Ted Hooper’d Guide to Bees and Honey, 4th edition: “Not only is there a definite difference in the quantity fed to the queen and worker larvae, the latter getting much less; there is also a qualitative difference as well.  The metabolic rate of the two types of larvae has been shown to be different when they are only twelve hours old, long before there is a quantitative difference in their food. ……. Research indicates that the differentiation of worker and queen is mainly brought about by variation in the amount of sugar added in the bee milk: the worker larva gets about half as much as the queen larva during its first three days. “    Contrast this with what A. Gilman wrote in “Practical Bee Breeding” in 1928:  “The suggestion that the food of the worker-larva is reduced in quantity gives rise to another difficulty. The life function of the worker is labour. For such the worker requires the most robust constitution, and we fail to see how nature can provide that constitution by stinting the food of the bee, when, we might say, it is in the baby stage. …… And the suggestion further implies that nature knows no other means to prevent the larva’s natural development into a queen than by reducing the quality and quantity of its food, thereby making inevitable a reduction of its vitality. Such a proposition we cannot accept.”