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Pure theatre!
I wonder if BBC will sell this to our fiends across the pond... and what on Earth they will make of all the quaint and somewhat wacky bee keeping practices proffered by what must be sheer comedy?
It is supposed to be a comedy isn't it, skeps hanging from ropes in someone's gazebo, you just could not make that one up!
BRAVO BBC! Compulsive viewing, I laughed until I cried!!!!

James
 
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Pure theatre!
I wonder if BBC will sell this to our fiends across the pond... and what on Earth they will make of all the quaint and somewhat wacky bee keeping practices proffered by what must be sheer comedy?
It is supposed to be a comedy isn't it, skeps hanging from ropes in someone's gazebo, you just could not make that one up!
BRAVO BBC! Compulsive viewing, I laughed until I cried!!!!

James

Well there's a freudian slip that made me laugh ... some of them are FIENDS across the pond judging by what I've seen occasionally on Youtube !!

Mind you ... I rather like the look of Heidi's Sun Hives ... and the gazebo - but having spent a whole day making half a straw skep last year (with the Association) and with it still sitting, unfinished, in the garage - I'm not sure I have the time or talent to make one !!
 
... and hardly a conventional method of AS leaving the original hive in its original location ... rather straying into 'good TV' territory ! I hope there's not a few new beekeepers hanging on every word !!

perhaps that's why so many people fail the BBKA Advanced and General Husbandry exams, we are not nailing our queens to fences posts like the Master Beekeeper did ,he must have past both husbandry exams
 
perhaps that's why so many people fail the BBKA Advanced and General Husbandry exams, we are not nailing our queens to fences posts like the Master Beekeeper did ,he must have past both husbandry exams

Did you see the size of the wallpaper shears he used to clip the bees wing ? It's nothing less than a miracle that he didn't chop her in half !!
 
I think BBC needs to make something like Keith Delaplane's series. Some viewers, especially of BBC 4, don't watch to be passively entertained, but want to learn something.

A properly educational series might portray how much work is involved and the truly interesting things about bees. It might also result in beginners with a sounder basic knowledge, rather than the beekeepers that turn up thinking that theyre doing us a favour and proclaiming 'I'm here to save the bees!'

Just think the series is trying too hard to make a fundamentally fascinating topic interesting. No need for the fancy filming techniques IMHO, just a knowledgable and engaging presenter.

M

I like the series too. You can see it on youtube. I like the nostalgic early 90's feel.
 
Well, it was a puzzling episode. I can imagine to Creatives, meeting somewhere in Broadcasting House, saying "I want us to show how a swarm happens!" The project accountant says that having the film crews on standby for three days will cost £100,000 and use half the filming budget. Creative decides he wants a man-made swarm that's not too complicated for the viewers to understand. The entomologist explains about an Artificial Swarm but the Creative does not understand it. "Anything I don't understand won't be understood by the viewers" So they come up with an Artificial Natural Swarm - "We'll get our resident expert to catch the Queen, put her in a box, hang her on a fence post, throw some bees at the post and then brush them off and pour them into one of those little boxes" Martha does not know any better and the expert has never earned so much money in his life and does not feel inclined to rock the boat - hence the Artificial Natural Swarm, which left everybody confused, including the flying bees who come home and find that Mum has gone.

The real swarm that Nick was delegated to collect from Martha's colony consisted of a couple of cups of bees. I suspect their clipped Queen had returned to the hive and Nick was left to do some tidying up and pretend it was a swarm.

As a former Health and Safety Manager, I felt it was good to see Heidi wearing some personal protective equipment (decorators' googles) during an intrusive hive intervention. Julia Bradbury must have phoned Martha and told her "On no account go anywhere near her bees without full protective equipment" Martha was sensible and took notice!

I was puzzled by the curtailed honey extraction part - there seemed to be very little filtration, no settling and a very messy bottling procedure and the honey, when used, seemed quite hard, not really creamed. SWMBO observed that she wanted softer honey than that from my very expensive bees. Doh!

Despite all of my nit-picking, I still look forward to the fourth and final episode. As people with some knowledge of beekeeping but none of making TV programmes we can sit on the sidelines and make adverse observations but we're not the target audience - that will be the customers who will talk about The Wonder of Bees at your next Country Fair.

Can't wait for next week.

CVB
 
perhaps that's why so many people fail the BBKA Advanced and General Husbandry exams, we are not nailing our queens to fences posts like the Master Beekeeper did ,he must have past both husbandry exams

John (the expert/mentor) is a very knowledgeable beekeeper who knows what he is doing and is highly competent at his craft.
Cazza
 
I can't believe that on her BBC salary she cannot afford a decent extractor. the one she used appeared to have a galvanised inner with rust on the outside. She was shown selling her honey at a local show, so should be compliant.

overall a good series for non beekeepers.
 
It is an interesting series for beekeepers and non-beekeepers - but surely there's a point at which John (the expert) says 'no, we don't do that, entertainment or not' ?
I'm also pleased Heidi's bees are far enough away from mine not to be able to breed with them. Heaven knows what they're carrying around!
 
John (the expert/mentor) is a very knowledgeable beekeeper who knows what he is doing and is highly competent at his craft.
Cazza
Unfortunately he appears to have had little input to the final edit.

Much seems to be dictated by the recording schedule. "We'll be there at 12, make them swarm", "Do some mite treatment" from the previous week that dropped 6 mites.
 
I enjoy this show, I think some are holding it to a pretty high educational standard for what is after all and entertainment show.

If you asked her if she did swarm control by nailing the queen to a fence post, I'm guessing she's say 'no'
 
Overall, I think its a very good programme and has to be seen for what it is.
I did think that the point was lost when Martha suggested that perhaps clipping the Queen was cruel. I dont think she meant did it hurt? She meant cruel in the sense that mutilating a bee in order to stop it flying is cruel. Seems cruel to me in all senses as we know that it does not stop swarming, it just stops the queen flying.
 
Saw one of my neighbours this morning. Her first remark was "Do you clip your Queens' wings?" After some discussion about the programme, she asked if she could visit my apiary.

The Wonder of Bees is working - Thanks Martha!

CVB
 
and the expert has never earned so much money in his life

BBC paying someone!
Equity basic at best for a qualified actor.
It is done for love, loveee!
AND all the cudos of being on the telly.

Still chuckling at the Yodelling Swiss Miss and her gazebo bee pods!

James
 
Overall, I think its a very good programme and has to be seen for what it is.
I did think that the point was lost when Martha suggested that perhaps clipping the Queen was cruel. I dont think she meant did it hurt? She meant cruel in the sense that mutilating a bee in order to stop it flying is cruel. Seems cruel to me in all senses as we know that it does not stop swarming, it just stops the queen flying.

My asked me about that, once I pointed out to her it basically meant the queen would probably die but you'd keep all the bees she didn't approve.
 
I like the program but my wife says Fifi and the flower tots has the edge educationally.
 
Not sure why those contraptions she hangs her bees in are more natural than a wooden hive. There cant be many empty logs etc in nature that shape!
 

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