EVERYONE agreed that the Vintage Tea Party in August had been a great success and Karen thanked everyone who had helped.

On behalf of the meeting Dinah thanked Karen and the committee for all their hard work.

We were reminded of the very successful Luncheon Club’s next meeting at Hunter’s Hall on Friday, September 26 and also that the Christmas meal would be at The George.

Birdlip on Tuesday, December 9.

The Model Railway Exhibition will be on the weekend of November 1 and 2 where we will be presenting our usual craft display.

It was also suggested that we might like to form a Food Club visiting various local food producers.

Keith Dickensen then gave us a very interesting talk on bees and bee keeping.

His father, who came to our meeting, began bee keeping in Bisley in 1959 with two hives which grew to ten and then twenty and through thirty years the number of hives has grown to between three hundred and fifty and four hundred.

The bee’s main object is not just collecting pollen but also to collect nectar and water.

Water is very important as the hives need to be kept at a constant temperature of 30-35 degrees C.

Keith brought a hive which he took apart to show the various six sections.

Drones, workers and the Queen, who has an abdomen twice the length of an ordinary bee, make up the hive.

In the winter the bees are dormant feeding if necessary on a sugary food.

They wake in March and start to collect pollen first from snowdrops and then from pussy willow, dandelion (which is very good), and trees including horse chestnut, hawthorn and holly.

Nectar is produced in different flowers at different times of day so there is a constant supply for the bees.

In June the bees begin to swarm.

In Gloucestershire in particular there is a large diversity of flowers and trees contributing to the taste and colour of the honey.

We all learnt a lot about bees, their lives and the large important part they play in our lives.

Several questions were asked and Keith was thanked by Carol.