Show me the honey.

[simonwig]

I'm no fan of reality TV but it seems beekeeping is about to be caught up in it.

New show on the beeb, see link Show me the honey at the end of September. "five children and their families taking part in a series of weekly challenges to create the best hive and tastiest honey, with the winner taking home the beekeeper of the year trophy."

Who knows what it will do for the craft, but should be interesting.

What is interesting is the presenter, Maddie Moate, has never been stung in 15 years of beekeeping. Has anyone else gone that long without being stung, I haven't!

Simon

 

[manek]

It may be interesting. Like all reality TV, I'm also sensing it's likely to be infuriating...

 

[WoodenBeam]

It’s infuriating me already just a couple of paragraphs into the Guardian write up -

as people try to tackle the climate crisis by reversing the decline in bees

Also just noted this is for CBBC so I doubt if challenges will include shook swarms & such like

 

[Newbeeneil]

I can see this stimulating a spike in new bee keepers who are selling their equipment in their second year!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...the-honey-amateur-beekeepers-compete-bbc-show

 

[GuyNir]

Yet another BBC nonesense. Did I mention I stopped watching many years ago and therefore not paying the license fee?

 

[enrico]

Yet another BBC nonesense. Did I mention I stopped watching many years ago and therefore not paying the license fee?

Yes but the threats get quite nasty if you don't tell them every year why you are not paying. I have an annex with a separate address that once had a TV licence but how has no TV. Threatened with bailiffs this year. I don't see why I should have to tell them that I don't need a licence. They presume you do! In the end I told them but I might see it out next year and see how far they go with the threats!

 

[pargyle]

It rather depends on how easy they make it look ... it's being made for Childrens TV so it may not be too technical and lets face it - this and similar programmes are made for 'good' TV so you will see a very potted version of the reality.

There has been a spike in new beekeepers over the last couple of years - I suspect there will be the usual drop off rate (in our area the association courses are usually fully subscribed but the attendees who are still keeping bees a couple of years on is a fraction of those who do the course). The notion of keeping bees is very attractive from all sorts of aspects (real, imaginary and misled) but the reality of the commitment required and the number of pitfalls into which new beekeepers fall (or are led by misinformation) can lead to despair.

I would imagine that there are a lot of new beekeepers from the last couple of years that will be coming out of winter next spring with dead bees or colonies that are weak. The lack of one to one beekeeping mentorship over Covid has been exceedingly detrimental.

It's not the only area that's going to suffer - you only have to look at the number of dogs being put up for adoption to understand that there are going to be repercussions as a result of Covid for years to come.

 

[madasafish]

As a trainer my view is:
If a new beekeeper cannot keep coming to training classes every week, then the chances of them keeping bees successfully for any length of time is less than 10%.

(or more crudely, if they have not got the time to learn, they'll kill their bees)

I think official stats suggest the dropout rate is over 60% over two years

 

[thorn]

Children shouldn't be given matches, so how will they ventilate their hives?

 

[krennie]

hmm - we shall see.
But the inevitable misleading lack of advice is bound to cause problems for both beekeepers, and the bees?
and what of the flora and fauna that is needed to sustain all these 'city' bees?

 

[Martimart]

Yet another BBC nonesense. Did I mention I stopped watching many years ago and therefore not paying the license fee?

Same here

 

[Martimart]

It rather depends on how easy they make it look ... it's being made for Childrens TV so it may not be too technical and lets face it - this and similar programmes are made for 'good' TV so you will see a very potted version of the reality.

There has been a spike in new beekeepers over the last couple of years - I suspect there will be the usual drop off rate (in our area the association courses are usually fully subscribed but the attendees who are still keeping bees a couple of years on is a fraction of those who do the course). The notion of keeping bees is very attractive from all sorts of aspects (real, imaginary and misled) but the reality of the commitment required and the number of pitfalls into which new beekeepers fall (or are led by misinformation) can lead to despair.

I would imagine that there are a lot of new beekeepers from the last couple of years that will be coming out of winter next spring with dead bees or colonies that are weak. The lack of one to one beekeeping mentorship over Covid has been exceedingly detrimental.

It's not the only area that's going to suffer - you only have to look at the number of dogs being put up for adoption to understand that there are going to be repercussions as a result of Covid for years to come.

The worse thing about having Kids, CBeebies and Mr Tumble. Hate him with a passion…. And the little ones love him!!

 

[GuyNir]

Yes but the threats get quite nasty if you don't tell them every year why you are not paying. I have an annex with a separate address that once had a TV licence but how has no TV. Threatened with bailiffs this year. I don't see why I should have to tell them that I don't need a licence. They presume you do! In the end I told them but I might see it out next year and see how far they go with the threats!

They can threaten you all day long. Without proving you do use it, nothing more they can do. And (as in my case) if you don’t use it, no way they can prove otherwise.

 

[BigAshW]

Interesting how the presenter has managed 15 years of beekeeping without ever getting stung? I barely manage a month without getting tagged at least once.

 

[hemo]

May be she is a keeper of bees and doesn't actually interact with the hive physically.
I expect we will be tutting at the use of leather gauntlets to start with.

 

[0bee-1]

i think we need a bit or perspective here ... CBBC (short for Children's BBC, also known as the CBBC Channel) content is for children and teenagers aged 6 to 17.
According to the article the Presenter's mother keeps bees and the 'contestants' will be helped and "assisted by professional beekeeper Curtis Thompson" who i am sure is a competent chap.
I wish there had been something like this when i was a child. As it was at my secondary school there was a teacher who had 6 hives in a courtyard that could be viewed from windows on a corridor. As an 11 yr old i would spend my break times watching the bees going in and out of the hives but never actually got anywhere near the bees sadly. it took me a long time and work related stress for me to give it a go.
I have been into my local junior school to talk about bees and beekeeping show slides and video clips, they can try on a bees suit and puff on a smoker ... they love it especially trying the honey (many of whom have never eaten it before!)
It may not be perfect television or meet the standard of beekeeping of those on here but i feel anything like this, despite the hype, that catches the imagination and curiosity of even one child to take up the craft is a good thing.

 

[Newbeeneil]

If you have never seen Maddie Moate on CBBs, she has done quite a few bee keeping YouTube videos for children.
Here's one .

I would guess the reason she never gets stung is her mother does the work and she wears bloody great gauntlets.

 

[Markthebuilder]

“Extracting is a ball ach” I’m not sure if blue Peter badge holders would approve

 

[Moobee]

If you have never seen Maddie Moate on CBBs, she has done quite a few bee keeping YouTube videos for children.
Here's one .

I would guess the reason she never gets stung is her mother does the work and she wears bloody great gauntlets.

Mummy’s suit looks very clean and she’s not wearing a cap! Wonder if she’s been stung on the nose yet

 

[Apiarist]

What is interesting is the presenter, Maddie Moate, has never been stung in 15 years of beekeeping. Has anyone else gone that long without being stung, I haven't!

How would she know if she is always 'Gauntlet-ed up' ... yes I know she means stung on the skin, but still sometimes I have to manipulate the bees a lot, shaking them out etc. and the air is thick with bees, one always gets in the fold of the bee suit just to try and get you when you take the bee suit out to hang it up and ... argghh!