Editor – on behalf of all amateur bee keepers, thank you so much for publishing the bee-friendly article in Kempton Express on December 24.
I would urge you to keep up the good work and do follow-ups in the weeks to come.
We, as humans, need to be made more and more aware of the importance of bees to the welfare of our world.
It’s not just a cliché to say “no bees, no food”, it’s also a very scary fact illustrated by the sad state of affairs where in some parts of the world people have resorted to trying to hand pollinate fruit trees because they have managed to destroy all the bees by the use of very toxic insecticides.
We must never let this happen in our wonderful country.
Look after the bees and they will provide.
As an amateur beekeeper with the need to sell honey in order to finance my hobby I am sometimes saddened by the attitude of some people who balk at the price of a jar of pure, organic, unadulterated honey.
It is usually no more than the price of store-bought honey which is, to say the least, sometimes rather inferior to the local product.
People seem to think honey should be cheap as “the bees gather it for free” and an amateur beekeeper is just profiteering.
Nobody ever thinks of the cost of hives and internals, beekeeping equipment, bottles and labels and even fuel used when visiting hives in the very necessary activity of bee management.
So, next time you are offered a jar of locally produced honey, grab it and rejoice in knowing that you are helping to “save the world” and getting one of the world’s most wonderful natural products with properties that are found in no other natural substance known to man.
Bee healthy, bee safe, and ha-bee this year.
From – Alex Swanepoel, Marmanet Retirement Village, Kempton Park.
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