WE gave a warm welcome to Don Symonds, a Probus Club member from Wimborne at our meeting on Thursday, August 6. John Doyle had invited Don as he was in the area visiting relatives. Clive Allen then entertained us with some schoolchildren’s bloopers that Dennis Hallett had collected.

Our guest speaker this week was local man Mike Pattinson, a former Prison Governor, who has been beekeeping for over 20 years. With great enthusiasm and huge knowledge, Mike talked us through the range of bumble bees, wasps and honey bees, their habitat, life cycles and breeding patterns. He explained that they fed on pollen and nectar and honey bees produce a surplus of honey which we enjoy.

He described a typical hive and passed round the various component parts as well as pictures and illustrations of the bees. He emphasised that climate change, pesticides, disease and habitat all have an adverse effect on bees. Locally, this might be disastrous as about 80 per cent of our apples are pollinated by honey bees.

Mike responded fully to all our questions and explained that honey is often used medicinally as it doesn’t support bacteria. He also advised that honey that is labelled “pure” is merely an advertising gimmick. Number of members bought jars of Mike’s Evesham Honey.

Nige Jenkins thanked Mike on our behalf and said that as a result of his talk, he now understood why bumble bees had taken over his bird boxes.

Next week, on August 13, we look forward to a presentation entitled “Ladies who swing” followed on August 20 by a talk on the Amish people.

CHRIS DONOUGH