Our apiary and our hundreds of thousands of bees up by the wind turbines continue to be one of the important ways we have of interacting with the land that the FHT looks after. Martin Harker, John Willoner and I hold the awareness of our hives and their seasonal needs whilst encouraging as many others to get involved as possible. This has proved a little tricky with Covid restrictions but there has been a steady stream of helpers and those wanting to get involved – we feel that it is essential to encourage this and the next generation to take an interest in these vital and fascinating creatures.
This year has been a strange one as it was so cold during the month of May that we had to feed the bees to keep them alive. That said, once summer arrived the bees made the most of it and we were able to not only increase the number of hives from 4 in the spring to 10 going into the winter but also to have a bumper harvest.
Harvest time is always a delight to me bringing back childhood memories of taking honey combs down to the minister’s manse at Kinloss and revelling in the smell, stickiness and productive feeling of the honey extraction process. It was our dear departed Dorothy Maclean who was our beekeeper then despite her being very allergic to their stings. This year the extraction process took place at John Willoner’s house and was aided by the Holden family, Ted, Christine, Dell and others. It was particularly hard work as our extractor was on its last legs and required a lot of effort to get the liquid gold spinning out as it should. Tasteful new Findhorn Honey labels had been designed and produced by Avalon de Santos and Christopher Holden was a particularly keen decanter into the jars.
The Great Garden Gathering was a time we could share and sell our harvest with Dell looking after the stall. This event along with sales John Willoner also made from his home on the field, we made a total of £600+ this year which will go right back into caring for and developing our apiary in the coming years.
Great thanks goes to the wonderful bees we care for and all those that have been involved in caring for them and those that bought honey to support this venture.
Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair
Celebrating Our Bees and the 2021 Honey Harvest
Our apiary and our hundreds of thousands of bees up by the wind turbines continue to be one of the important ways we have of interacting with the land that the FHT looks after. Martin Harker, John Willoner and I hold the awareness of our hives and their seasonal needs whilst encouraging as many others to get involved as possible. This has proved a little tricky with Covid restrictions but there has been a steady stream of helpers and those wanting to get involved – we feel that it is essential to encourage this and the next generation to take an interest in these vital and fascinating creatures.
This year has been a strange one as it was so cold during the month of May that we had to feed the bees to keep them alive. That said, once summer arrived the bees made the most of it and we were able to not only increase the number of hives from 4 in the spring to 10 going into the winter but also to have a bumper harvest.
Harvest time is always a delight to me bringing back childhood memories of taking honey combs down to the minister’s manse at Kinloss and revelling in the smell, stickiness and productive feeling of the honey extraction process. It was our dear departed Dorothy Maclean who was our beekeeper then despite her being very allergic to their stings. This year the extraction process took place at John Willoner’s house and was aided by the Holden family, Ted, Christine, Dell and others. It was particularly hard work as our extractor was on its last legs and required a lot of effort to get the liquid gold spinning out as it should. Tasteful new Findhorn Honey labels had been designed and produced by Avalon de Santos and Christopher Holden was a particularly keen decanter into the jars.
The Great Garden Gathering was a time we could share and sell our harvest with Dell looking after the stall. This event along with sales John Willoner also made from his home on the field, we made a total of £600+ this year which will go right back into caring for and developing our apiary in the coming years.
Great thanks goes to the wonderful bees we care for and all those that have been involved in caring for them and those that bought honey to support this venture.
Jonathan Caddy
FHT Chair