The May 2025 gathering for a talk and lunch – Juniper Hall’s bee-keepers fascinated the Friends with an update on how the sunny spring has taken over their lives as bee hives across the local area have taken advantage of the abundant pollen and nectar to swell their numbers, grow new queens and swarm. John and Howard, protected top to toe in their bee suits, have successfully homed many of the swarms, settling them into comfortable new hives. This includes six from an over-wintered hive which was showing encouraging signs of resistance to the deadly parasitic varroa mite and didn’t need treating. Hopefully these bees’ behaviour in detecting and dealing with infected cells may transfer to the new colonies.
Smiling faces watched videos of the intricate figure-of-eight waggle dance which tells other bees (even in the darkness of the hive) the distance and direction of good foraging, based on the position of the sun. Later, fingers were pointed in delight at the red-marked and long-tailed two-year-old queen bee included with the panels from one of Juniper Hall’s hives that Howard and John had brought in from the grounds, in a special (sealed) display case.
A further pleasing anecdote was how the bees are often seen drinking from the dipping pond which was funded by the Friends in 2022.