Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speaker Brian Goodwin

There are currently 1,500 bee keepers in Shropshire and with many of our crops, including apples, pears, raspberries, plums and cherries reliant on bees for pollination, the role of the beekeeper in today's hostile bee environment is ever more critical.

Recent press reports suggest that the Environment Secretary, Liz Truss, thinks we should leave our lawnmowers in the shed to protect our bees whilst others think we should address the issue of pesticides and restore the bees' habitats perhaps subsidising more bee-friendly trees.  Will our new national pollinator strategy (NPS), be enough to stop bee decline?

David Griffiths' guest speaker today was Brian Goodwin, President of Shropshire Beekeepers' Association and retired Principal of Radbrook College in Shrewsbury.

Brian began his talk by pointing out that bees are crucial to our food chain with 1 in 3 mouthfuls of all the food we eat having been impacted on by bees and their essential work of pollination. Historically honey was even more important than today since there was no refined sugar and honey was used in the brewing process! People have been keeping bees for thousands of years - they are even depicted in cave paintings. When Tutankhamen's tomb was opened jars were found containing honey which would still be edible, and from the pollen present we know where it was made!  One of the earliest people to write about bees in the UK was the Venerable Bede, from Jarrow near Durham who was writing in 680AD.

There are 60 different types of bee in the UK including the large bumble bees which appear in the Spring when the queens come out to set up colonies, solitary bees such as the leaf-cutter and most importantly the very industrious honey-bees.  Brian gave us a real insight into this subject with his very interesting talk and we thanked him in the usual way with a hearty round of applause.

Shropshire Beekeepers' Association