Compose a talk?

[For want of a better word]

1 Honey: why it is made, how it is made, extracted and bottled. Tasting goes with it if you have a variety. Brief description of the job of beekeeper as you assemble a hive & pass round combs; wear bee-suit, take smoker, walk in with it lit (if that doesn't wake them up the alarms will).

2 Pollination: more important than honey. What pollinators do, why they are important: one third of food on shelf, almond farms, Chinese paint-brush pollination.

3 Bees dying out? The accurate picture - many of 270 UK species in trouble due to loss of habitat, honeybees doing well (9k members 10 years ago, 25k now). Loss of habitat due to more people = more housing, food, shopping and such pointless toot, and to industrial farming driven by supermarkets desire to profit from cheap food; food not cheap long-term because the NHS will pick up the bill (U3As use and care about the NHS).

4 What can they do to help? Buy for taste, buy less, buy local. Support British beekeepers and reject cleansed honey imports (80-odd % imported). Daily Mail Brexiters will love you. Ask them to watch out for Asian hornet: brief story, give out free sheets (available from nonnativespecies.org). Many U3As will be observant gardeners.

5 Q&A will probably include baloney questions about dramatic allergy to stings, hatred of wasps, criminal feeding of sugar and stealing from poor bees etc. All can be shot down (the questions, that is).

Personally, I avoid powerpoint and prefer to pass bits around and rattle on, but do ask one of the audience to tap a wrist when time is nearly up.

Take honey to sell.

Last year I gave a Honeybee talk to the Pensilva Memory Club.... Power point presentation kept very basic.
Audience was very proactive and all wanted to know how they could make a difference.... not one fell asleep or wandered off... which is what happens at most talks they have.
Quite inspirational as it made me realise there is a life after 70!

Your powerpoint slides should give you enough inspiration not to go off track too much..... A vicar friend once said to me that when he needed to give a sermon at one particular church in the Guilldford Diocese he never needed to write a sermon as he could take inspiration from the frescoes on the church walls.... food for thought??

Chons da

 

[Finman]

1 Honey: why it is made, how it is made, extracted and bottled. Tasting goes with it if you have a variety. Brief description of the job of beekeeper as you assemble a hive & pass round combs; wear bee-suit, take smoker, walk in with it lit (if that doesn't wake them up the alarms will).

2 Pollination: more important than honey. What pollinators do, why they are important: one third of food on shelf, almond farms, Chinese paint-brush pollination.

3 Bees dying out? The accurate picture - many of 270 UK species in trouble due to loss of habitat, honeybees doing well (9k members 10 years ago, 25k now). Loss of habitat due to more people = more housing, food, shopping and such pointless toot, and to industrial farming driven by supermarkets desire to profit from cheap food; food not cheap long-term because the NHS will pick up the bill (U3As use and care about the NHS).

4 What can they do to help? Buy for taste, buy less, buy local. Support British beekeepers and reject cleansed honey imports (80-odd % imported). Daily Mail Brexiters will love you. Ask them to watch out for Asian hornet: brief story, give out free sheets (available from nonnativespecies.org). Many U3As will be observant gardeners.

5 Q&A will probably include baloney questions about dramatic allergy to stings, hatred of wasps, criminal feeding of sugar and stealing from poor bees etc. All can be shot down (the questions, that is).

Personally, I avoid powerpoint and prefer to pass bits around and rattle on, but do ask one of the audience to tap a wrist when time is nearly up.

Take honey to sell.

Yeah... That is a good message to elder people: Everything is dying.
.

 

[Apiarisnt]

What can bees teach economists about how markets work?

You may find one or two of the historical snippets from this might add interest:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47057769

although some of the economics bits might be found to be too boring

 

[Charley]

I did one recently to an elderly group (so am I). Titled it "My experience of beekeeping". Took along a hive (no bees) and kept it simple. Then the questions come so be prepared. Went down well.

 

[Ian123]

I would if at all possible take an observation hive, they always generate a large amount of interest and questions

 

[For want of a better word]

I would if at all possible take an observation hive, they always generate a large amount of interest and questions

First check your public liability!

Chons da