At their February meeting the President welcomed two guests then speedily ran through the business part of the meeting. They are sending crotchet flowers, to a WI member in Newbridge on Wye in memory of those who died in the Serbian wars in 1995. This is part of a project to produce a banner of 8372 flowers. Several members are also helping to produce poppies for a display in Llantilio church for Remembrance Day in November as well as supporting the “Standing With Giants” appeal nationally. The craft group will be entering the next Gwent federation competition, the Royal Welsh Competitions Day, in March. The theme for this year is “Circles, Rings and All Things Round”. Several other dates and events were noted before the President welcomed and introduced the speaker for the evening, Kathy Hague.

Kathy, from Gwent Beekeepers, created a “buzzing” environment, full of “Bee” information.They pollinate over 75% of food crops and roughly 80% of wild flowers. She said that there are 274 types of bee in this country and 2006 in the world. Each year the Queen bee is given a colour, which the beekeeper puts on her back, which this year is white. She performs a waggle dance to tell the rest of the colony that she’s healthy and ready to lay her eggs. Bees will travel up to three miles foraging for pollen and nectar. They make it their lifelong ambition to produce just 1 teaspoon of honey! Plants to grow to encourage bees would be cornflowers, lavender, hebe, poppies, fuchsia, geraniums, foxgloves and hydrangeas. Dandelions are a good source of food for them too!

Kathy explained the behaviour and complex nature of the bee community from the Queen bee to the drones (males) and worker bees (female). She has kept bees for three years and is passionate about their care. She brought along examples of the equipment needed to be a bee keeper ranging from the protective suit to a small hive. She is setting up 2 hives at Llantilio Pertholey Primary school this year as part of the school woodland garden project. She promised to update the members on her progress at a later date. The sharing of her wealth of knowledge on this subject was very much appreciated and the members made a welcome donation to the project. Verity thanked Kathy for such an informative talk. Questions were still being asked whilst refreshments were being served as it was so interesting.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 11th March at Llanvapley pavilion at 7pm when Mary McLellan will talk on Women and Heart Disease, the risks, symptoms and prevention. All are welcome.