Pageant News

Thursday 14 February

On Wednesday, we had planned a quick trip out to the Bee Farm at Lamin and then to return to the hotel to sort out all the kit for the two workshops.

We left in good time, but Yankuba heard that the farm manager whom we wanted to see was not going to be there for another hour or so. We therefore made a couple of sponsorship payments in the very wild, poor area behind the airport.

We then went to the bee farm This is run by a charity call “Bee Cause” and whilst it does produce honey and other bee products, its main aim is to promote bee keeping as an aid to pollination.

Pippa and others had visited the farm in November and asked them to come up with a project as a Pageant member had offered some money to promote beekeeping.  Mrs Bah, the manager had visited an upcountry school to talk about a project, but unfortunately had lost everything. She will redo the proposals and email them to me.

Along with keeping bees the farm encourages beekeeping by offering courses. Participants are shown how to make and maintain hives and bee swarm boxes which are put in trees to capture any swarms of bees. The bees kept are African bees which are notoriously more aggressive than European bees. The farm counters this by doing their actual work with bees around dusk when they are less active.

A bee collecting box (swarm box)

The huts used as accommodation for people attending beekeeping courses

We bought some honey, soap and body cream and got in van … which had broken down with gearbox problems. We were given a lift to the village and then took a taxi back to the hotel.

After a short break we put together the kit which needed taking to the workshop and did a practice run of one of the chemistry experiments.

In the evening we met up with Linda and all went to “Sea Shells” restaurant which specialises in fish.

Gardeners Question Time

What is this? It can be found in UK shops

The answer to my previous question is - The fruit of the cashew tree from which the nuts are obtained