Beginning Beekeeping

The Whitworth, Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery are joining forces to help save the bees!

Myself (Leanne, The Whitworth), John Mouncey (Manchester Art Gallery), John Peel (Manchester Art Gallery) and Sam Sportun (Manchester Museum) all recently attended a two day course: ‘Introduction to Beekeeping’ at Heaton Park. The course was a whistle stop tour of the world of bees and looking after them. Along with a healthy dose of theory we also covered the fun stuff: woodwork, extraction and meeting the bees!

Over the last few years bees have been struggling; battling with a mite called Varroa which has wiped out large numbers of bee colonies. The mite causes the bees to get infections and weakens them considerably. Without bees to pollinate our crops we are looking at serious food shortages in the future so we need to help our yellow and black friends now!

I became interested in beekeeping after watching the film ‘Vanishing of the Bees’ and reading the book ‘A World Without Bees’ so I jumped at the chance to take part in a training course and helping them any way I could. However I have to make a confession – I’m terrified of all crawling and flying creatures so I knew it wouldn’t be easy!

The first day of the course was an introduction to bees and the equipment needed to look after them. In the afternoon I got to go out and meet the bees, I was very nervous (but excited). I got to wear the suit and go and look in a hive. The hive my group picked was a very small colony which I think was a good introduction as it was only half full! Less bees to fly out and scare me! We also got to lift out the frames (where the bees live) and inspect them for the queen, brood (the eggs that become the young bees) and drones (male bees). We were also looking for varroa and the honey stores.

Straight after meeting the bees I moved onto woodwork…which I was rubbish at! You have to study woodwork as a lot of beekeeping is putting together the hive and frames. Knowing how to knock in a nail is essential! I’m sure I’ll improve though the more I do…well that’s what the teacher told me anyway!

Day two was more theory in the morning. This time; swarming and diseases. Swarming was very confusing so more revision will definitely be needed and diseases was just a bit unpleasant! The afternoon was spent in the extraction room spinning the honey out of the frames and putting it in jars. Definitely one of the most fun parts of beekeeping! The final part of the day, and probably not the best way to end the two day course was a whole section on varroa, not exciting but definitely essential.

Finally I’ve added some links to interesting bee information and more blog posts will follow. Eventually myself and the rest of the bee team will be starting our own blog so I’ll keep you posted – Leanne

The British Beekeeers Association:http://www.bbka.org.uk/

Manchester & District Beekeepers’ Association: http://www.mdbka.com/home.html

Vanishing of the Bees film: http://vanishingbees.co.uk/

A World Without Bees book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Without-Bees-Alison-Benjamin/dp/0852650922

Manchester: A Certain Future

Manchester: A Certain Future held their annual conference last week.

There’s no doubt that there are some serious challenges which the UK is facing in terms of carbon reduction over the next few years, but it was great to see so much enthusiasm from delegates at the conference about making small changes – from green roofs to locally sourced food. These small things do add up and if everyone in the city pledged to make one small change it would have an incredible impact.

As an organisation we are trying to do all we can to make a difference, especially as part of our capital development project which, although increasing the building by 30%, will reduce overall carbon outputs by 10%.

Read more about Manchester: A Certain Future here.

http://www.manchesterclimate.com/

An Orchard for the Whitworth

Sarah Price has created this fantastic initial concept sketch for an orchard which will run along the north side of the Whitworth, along Denmark Road. The orchard will be accessible to visitors from the Gallery and visible through the windows from the new study areas. We’ll be putting some sculpture in the orchard too – Sarah’s drawing shows Dorothy Cross’s Standing Foxglove which has been bought for the Whitworth by a very generous donor. You can see that it has influenced Sarah’s thinking about planting!

The orchard will be a fairly shady space so Sarah is currently thinking about shade loving plants including ferns and a a shady meadow mix, evocative of woodland edge plantings. (including Campions, Cow parsley, Pignut, Primrose, Lesser celandine and Foxgloves). We think it’s going to be very lovely!

Wonderful Whitworth Wildlife Big Saturday

Join The Manchester Museum Youth Board and the Friends of Whitworth Park for a festival of fun in Whitworth Park at our Wonderful Whitworth Wildlife big Saturday to help us create a wildlife area, specifically for the symbol of our city, the Bee, but that our entire community can enjoy! Whether you’re interested in plants, animals, natural history or just want to discover something new there’s an activity for everyone. On the day you could be helping create a green, animal friendly environment that will last for years! So come along to experience local wildlife, environmentally friendly craft activities, archaeology, wildflower planting and much more.

All the details are here: http://events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:e43-gyloofhc-vqaa23/

Woodpeckers!

I’m pleased to report that I’ve just seen a very busy woodpecker on the tree outside the Gallery, the first time this year. I’d love to have a photo for you but he’s just too far away for my camera phone to cope with. However, you can learn a bit more about this lovely bird here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greatspottedwoodpecker/index.aspx