World Bee Day - Saturday, 20 May

By the Radford Awareness & Service (RAS) Junior ‘Bee Team’

Did you know? This Saturday, 20 May, is World Bee Day.

Did you also know? Our caretaker, Florin, has a beehive at his on-campus residence.

Late last term, RAS Junior students, accompanied by Ms Markovic, visited Florin and Cristina to find out about Radford's bees. When we were visiting, Florin told us that smoke scares bees because they think a fire is coming. They fill their mouths with honey and stay in the hive until they are certain there isn't a fire. They keep the honey safe.

We had a great time visiting the hive. Here are some of the things we learnt:

"Bees do not like dark colours. When Florin wore his dark Radford work clothes, the bees didn’t like it. They seemed to chase him!"

"When bees sting someone, they die. They are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their queen."

"Did you know bees fight? Well, they do – we saw two bees having a fight!"

Cristina made us honey cookies, which we were allowed to taste. They were delicious! We also got to try the honeycomb and Radford honey. When we tasted the honeycomb, we chewed...and chewed...and chewed, and it turned into a gummy blob. It was like chewing gum.

When we visited the hive, we all got to get close to the hive, so we could see the inside of the hive. There were a lot of bees buzzing about. The saying is very true – as busy as a bee!

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