All about the bees, 'bout the bees

| 26th November 2014

Tucked up but still centre stage

Whilst each colony of bees is almost at their lowest head count, with all the boys kicked out and the girls focused on protecting the queen through the coldest months, they are still attracting loads of attention as the general public are becoming more aware of their plight. Fortunately, as we keep our bees in an urban environment, they don’t face the challenges of mono-crop agriculture, heavy doses of pesticides or oil seed rape (which makes the honey smell and taste of cabbages). However, with the very mild winter last year, almost without a frost, the cheeky varroa mites found the perfect environment to reproduced virulently and cause havoc in the apiary. More and more people are becoming fascinated by these tiny creatures that pollinate so much of our food, as well as producing the most wonderful honey; we saw such a wide variety of people come on our bee keeping courses last summer and are thrilled to be supporting a London school as they begin to embark on their own bee keeping project.

As a London Bee Keeper, I have a Google alert set up which means that every time a new story relating to London Bees appears online, I receive an email linking to it. Football fans will know that this term is also the nickname for our local club, Brentford FC. Considering that their home, Griffin Park, is literally at the end of our road, I’m more than happy to keep up to date with their news, especially as my husband and son are both season ticket holders.

Brentford is famous for being the only club in the country that has a pub on each of its four corners. The nearest of which, to Hen Corner, is The Griffin which is owned by husband and wife team Gerhard and Claire who also bring culinary expertise especially on a Sunday Lunchtime or Wednesday Supper Club. I’ve been chatting to Gerhard about our honey and would love to see a closer relationship between the Brentford Bees and their local bee keepers!

Fruit & Nut Roll with Brentford Honey

Take inspiration from this short film that shows you how to make a stunning accompaniment for your festive cheese board or a unique gift for a special friend. We use our own honey for this recipe, but you can source honey local to you or find another supplier.

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Coming up at the Corner

This year we have had courses right throughout 2014 giving everyone the opportunity for ‘A little bit of country life in London’.

Into the new year, we have our Toast and Marmalade Course on Wednesday 28th January, this is a whole day course introducing both marmalade making and baking bread.

Why not come and join us? We have also planned all of our courses for next year, so whether you want to try something new or treat someone to a wonderful gift, have a look and book in early!

‘Oh yes, I am!’ This year I’m fulfilling a dream and am playing a part in a local pantomime, Cinderella, on Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th. Tickets are available here and we’d love you to join us along with your family and friends (£5 adults, £3 concessions).

Book of the Blog Post:

Booze: River Cottage Handbook No.12

By John Wright

This book is kept to hand especially during the Summer and Autumn months of home brewing…
Beer, Cider, Wine… I’m double checking it now as it’s time to bottle up our apple wine.

This book is available with many of our other favourite books from the Hen Corner Shop!

Other News:

Our Stir Up Sunday Course was oversubscribed this year and filmed by Chiswick Buzz, we’ll share the film as soon as we see it!
Men’s Fitness Magazine published a great article on Urban Farming and featured Hen Corner and our chickens as a great way to produce your own protein
We are trialing a new Christmas Wreath Workshop which, if successful, will be open to all next year