My first assignment
How fantastic to stroll down to the letterbox yesterday and find my first beekeeping assignment, returned, and marked. I got most of my questions right! But more gratifying were the multiple hand written comments from my teacher, and the encouragement. I was delighted that someone really took the time to go through my assignment. I’m going to write to my teacher and ask him the multiple questions I have about bees, since he seems so engaged. Yay!
Becoming a beekeeper
I’ve been fascinated by bees ever since I was a kid. I remember sitting there reading everything I could about bees in the big old books my parents had in the 70′s, studying the close-up photos of the beehive. I was enchanted with how bee colonies worked – with multiple roles; Queen, workers, drones, young brood. I described at dinner when I was about 11 how bees found sources of pollen and told other bees about it by dancing special dances inside their hives, and how they us the pollen sacs on their legs as ballast when they fly. When I was 12, a friend and I were pretending to be wildlife reporters for National Geographic, and we ‘snuck up’ on a colony of wild bees to take photos of them – and I was immensely surprised when several flew out in an angry swarm and tried to sting me, while my friend almost peed herself laughing. Even with this experience, I’ve always liked bees.
So this year, I’m going to do a course on how to become a beekeeper. It has a two day practical session in September 2009, and I’m planning, nay… scheming, to get some friends to do this with me so it can be extra fun. And the great bit is that the course is run over the internet. Perfect for someone living in the country.
I certainly hope this interview between Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese about beekeeping is part of the course