About Bees
Honeybees are amongst the highest forms of insect life. They live in well organised colonies, typically with there being around 35,000 to 50,000 bees in a hive during High Summer dropping to around 5,000 in the winter months. They produce honey and store it in wax combs, which mankind has learned to manage and harvest over many thousands of years. Honeybees use the same hive from one year to the next, and do not need to hibernate like many other insects.
Honeybees are also very beneficial to the ecology and environment of our gardens, countryside and the planet as a whole. The pollination benefit of bees is calculated to help the economy by millions of pounds per annum. Certain crops yield between 25% and 40% more if efficiently pollinated.
In addition to pollination, bees produce wax for candles and Royal Jelly. During the Middle Ages one of the most important jobs in an Abbey was the Beekeeper, as a huge quantity of wax was constantly required for the ceremonial candles.
Bees have been producing honey the same way for over one hundred and fifty million years. They also have a long standing connection with man; the first record of people keeping bees was in Spain at around 6000BC.
There is quite a big difference between Honeybees, Bumblebees and Wasps. Our website contains quite a lot of useful information for the visitor, so please take the time to explore and find out more about these amazing creatures.
If you have an interest in bees and beekeeping, why not contact us to find out about the benefits of becoming a member of the SRBA.
If you would like any further information, please contact us using the details on this website.
