WI

 I'm making no apologies for copying part of  a post from April last year because our speaker at Bacton WI was one I'd heard before  here in my village and written about - and it's an important subject.

This is what I wrote then...............

The speaker was brilliant and he gave a really good talk on "The Forgotten Bees"......that is all the hundreds of species of bee that are Not Honey Bees. In fact Honey Bees are causing all the other bees real problems because they carry some very nasty diseases and can get quite aggressive. He had photos from the US of Honey Bees unable to find enough food on their own attacking other bees and stealing pollen from their pollen sacs. 

More and more people are keeping bees but the way land is farmed means that there isn't enough food for them and gardeners prefer cut grass instead of dandelions and clover so we are no help either.

 He had results of recent surveys done on how many Honey Bee hives are kept in London - numbers have increased so much - especially during lockdown that other bees and insects have no food and have almost disappeared. 

The speaker, who's appropriate name really is Hawk Honey, was a long distance truck driver until an injury forced him to find a new job and he now works part time for Suffolk Wildlife Trust and gives talks about bees and advises on gardening for wildlife.

He had slides and videos of some of the various different solitary bees - some only feed on one type of flower or one family of plants. So many bees are on the Red Endangered lists but there's still time to help them. We should grow a wide variety of flowers for our gardens and choose those that have easily accessed pollen and persuade councils to plant up wild flower area on verges. Leaving a patch of clover to flower in a lawn and not cutting back any ivy until after it's flowered are both ways to help.

My favourite bee of those he told us about - not sure of it's Latin name - was a solitary bee who makes it's home only in empty snail shells. It has to be laying on bare ground because this clever bee burrows under the shell taking out the soil so the shell sits in a little hollow and moves it until the opening is exactly right. Then it lays its egg inside, closes up the shell and then covers it all with little twigs and dried grass - how amazing is that!

I've had this bee chart for a while but keep forgetting I've got it when I see any bees. 

In the business part of our meeting we are getting organised for next month which is being celebrated as National WI month and WI's around the country have been asked to plan some events that are open to everyone to attend. 

We are having a coffee morning, a craft afternoon and then our evening meeting will be an open meeting too. The speaker is talking about her days as a Bluebell Girl ( I need to look up exactly what that was)

More cake baking will be needed - still seems to be what WI's do best!

Back Tomorrow

Sue