Wow! A small but inspired group of people enjoyed extracting their own honey after hearing from Peter about bees. Everyone enjoyed hearing the wide range of information that Peter shared with us, and he was able to answer all sorts of questions – discussions ranged from the similarities between bees and human gender politics and the uses of propolis (a special “glue” that bees use to fix gaps in their hive) Here is just a small portion of the facts about bees he covered.

Queen bees live for  1 to 4 years 
Drone bees live for 6 to 8 weeks 
Worker bees live for 6 to 8 weeks
The brood temperature is always 34 deg C
It take 500 workers 4 weeks to make 1kg of honey
Queens can lay up to 2,000 eggs in 1 day      
It takes 21 days from an egg to a bee.
A hive contains approx 30,000-60,000 bees
Each bee frame has about 3,000 cells on each side of the frame. (6,000 cells per frame)
Bees are attracted to Dark colours which can excite them, so it is best to wear light colours & NOT dark. (Hats and Socks as well)
100 bee hives can use up to 1,000 litres of water in a week, that’s 10 litres each bee hive each week.
Bees can beat their wings up to 200 times per Second as they fly. (They have 4 wings) This is how they make their buzzing noise.
Bees can carry 50% of their weight in a load of honey and a Jumbo Jet can only carry about 25% of their weight.
Honey does not have a use by date, In Egypt they found honey that could be eaten after 2,000 years.
Bees need to eat about 7 kilograms of honey to make 1 kilogram of bees wax.
Pollen contains high levels of protein, 1 kilogram of pollen contains the same protein as 5 kilo of beef.
Bees use only about 1 teaspoon of honey to fly around the world.
If you are stung by a bee always scrape out the sting, never pull it out!

But the highlight of the evening was after the formal talking was over. We moved outside and chief honey extractor Aaron (at three and a half years of age) showed us how to use the hand spun machine extract honey from the honey filled frames Peter brought along.  Norm managed to get covered in honey and we all thoroughly enjoyed the taste of the unprocessed product.
Peter has several hives in the Fremantle, White Gum Valley and Coolbellup area and he prefers to sell his honey locally if possible. Shani and Tim always have some at their place, so get in touch with them if you are interested in purchasing local unprocessed honey from Peter.

As always seems to happen at Living Smarties it was inspiring to hear from someone so passionate about their area of interest, and we are all appreciative of the time Peter put into putting his presentation together and the effort he made to bring all his gear.

Next month we are planning an end of year dinner, sharing and celebration, along with a screening of the movie FLOW which will be held  at the end of Hulbert Street on Friday night December 4th.

Freo Living Smarties

 End of Year Dinner and Film Night 
   

Friday December 4th 2009
At the end of Hulbert Street, South Fremantle
Bring your family and friends

6:00 pm for dinner – bring food to share
Bring a chair to sit on (or pillows)
7:30pm for the movie FLOW and discussion
FLOW – For Love Of Water.
Water sustains our planet. Without it there would be nothing . . . come and see Irena Salina’s award winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st century – The World Water Crisis

For more information call Shani on 0417 941 991