Bee Update - We Have Honey

Our bees are thriving and seem much calmer and more settled now. Over the summer, they were visited weekly by one of our beekeepers to check that they were healthy and happy. After a few attempts to harvest the honey, Mrs Draycott was successful — after being very patient while waiting for the last few bees to leave. We then froze the honey so that the pupils could harvest it when they returned to school.

On Wednesday 16 October, the Sixth Form Beekeeping enrichment group and Eco-Club finally got to do the job they had been waiting for.

During lesson 4, the Sixth Form students prepared the honey frames by uncapping the wax from the honey. These were then placed into the honey extractor, and the pupils spun them until the frames were empty. The final frames were saved for the Eco-Club, who also enjoyed the process. The best bit was opening the tap and watching the honey pour into the bucket!

Once spun, the honey must be sieved and left to stand for 24 hours to allow the bubbles to rise to the top. These are then removed before the honey is poured into jars.

A big thank you to Mrs Seymour for letting us use her kitchen, and to Mrs Keen for helping with the big clean-up operation.

We managed to get just over 10lbs of honey and have entered two jars into the National Honey Show in Surrey this weekend. Look out for an update soon to see how we get on!

We have now prepared the bees for winter. They have plenty of stores and we are already excited to see what next year will bring.