The BeeHolder, October 2011

It was a Saturday morning some years ago now that I was standing on my plant stall selling (amongst other things) some small cotoneaster shrubs that were in flower. A man with silver grey hair walked past and pointed to a bee on the shrub and made the comment that the shrub was very good for bees. After asking him if he kept bees and a bit about keeping them we talked about moving bees some distance and my garden became a staging post for two hives.

Over that season I had one or two hives in my garden most of the time and whenever Dennis came to work them I joined in and became hooked by his humour, enthusiasm and expertise and bought an old hive and a colony from him.

What is the point of this little story?

It is that I had a whole season with expert advice and practice of helping with hives and learning a fair bit from my MENTOR without any outlay. It benefited us both - me learning and he moving hives.

My point is that with all the publicity about bees dieing out and the disaster it could be. Many people think they can just buy a hive or two, a couple of colonies and at the end of the season they can harvest many jars of free honey whilst saving the planet. In other words they have the right intention but not a clue, and if they don't have some help with handling and all the work that goes into it they loose interest and sell their kit at a huge loss.

After my mentoring period was over, for several years Dennis would pop in and we would chat about things, and he would suggest better ways of managing my (by now) eight colonies and lending books on Mini Neucs and Swarm control etc.

So why do we not have a Mentor scheme in the association? So that if someone wants to start an beekeeping, an experienced member local to the new person acts as a Mentor. Ideally the experienced member would put a hive of bees in the new member's apiary and the new member would assist in the day to day upkeep of the hive learning “hands on” how to keep bees. The experienced member gets help with his beekeeping, a (temporary) out apiary and that smug feeling that comes with helping someone. The new member gets a trial period (with help) of keeping bees and that their neighbours and family don't mind, before making any outlay.

Graham Winchester

Dennis Cordwell passed away in September and was a keen beekeeper. Graham's tribute above is a reminder of what a good beekeeper and friend he was to many in the association.

Editor