SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Download, the Claremont podcast where we reflect on school life, learning, and the moments that make our community special. It's been a very wet and rainy final week here at the half term, but despite the weather, there's been lots happening across the school. From fascinating history facts to musical performances and cricket fixtures, it's been another busy week at Claremont. The children shared some fascinating facts about how life has changed over the years, and some of it sounded very strange compared to today.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

I couldn't believe that in Victorian Britain people who paid someone called a knocker-upper to wake them up in the morning. Imagine someone knocking on on your window every day instead of having an alarm clock. And they said olive oil used to be used for cleaning your body. And then they would scrape the dirt off afterwards, which sounded pretty disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Definitely a few yuck moments in there. But alongside the interesting facts, the children also showed fantastic oresy and presentation skills, speaking clearly, confidently and engaging the audience brilliantly. Well done to everybody in 3B. A huge well done to the Year 2s who embarked on their very first Claremont sleepover at Stable Court last Friday. It was a really exciting evening full of activities, independence and new experiences.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

It's a big step for year two and probably felt very grown up.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

And everyone behaved really well, which made it such a positive experience.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Experience like this helped build confidence, resilience and friendships. On Tuesday lunchtime, we also had a wonderful cello showcase in the hall. It was fantastic seeing pupils sharing their musical talents with the school community.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

It's always impressive seeing people perform instruments live. Playing in front of an audience takes confidence and practice, and music can completely change the atmosphere of the room.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

It was a brilliant lunchtime performance. Well done to everyone involved. Well done as well to the Year 6 girls who played cricket against St. George's School at the weekend. The team played extremely well and represented the school brilliantly.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

School always teaches teamwork and communication. And even in difficult conditions, you still have to stay positive and focused.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Exactly. Great effort from everyone involved. This week we're joined by someone very important at the Claremont community, especially if you enjoy honey. Mark Gale from Beesmax looks after Claremont's very own bees hives behind Fan Court, helping produce our own completely natural Claremont honey. Mark, thank you very much for joining us here today.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Well, thank you for inviting me along.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Now I've been here for nearly five years, and I didn't even know we had some uh bees here at Claremont. Um, is this a new thing or has this been uh been doing this a while?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

It is relatively new. They only came in last year. So uh you wouldn't have missed them because they weren't here.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

That would be why then. Um what an amazing idea. Well, Claremont honey. Oh my goodness, this sounds fantastic. Well, I know the digital explorers here have got lots of questions. Um, I've got a couple to start with. To begin with, can you uh tell us a little bit more about the bee hives at Claremont and what makes the honey so special?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Well, the bees are down in the bottom field, um, quite a way away from most of the activities that happen during the day. So they're quite sheltered and separate from where the children are, which is a nice safe enclave to be in. Yeah. Which means I can look at the hives, open them up, and that and then they can be put back together again. And if the bees wander around for a while, they don't wander around in amongst the children.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

We we don't really want them coming into into classes, really, but uh No, they try and avoid that uh they try and evolve uh avoid all bipeds walking along grass paths and across fields.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Awesome. Can you help us understand the process of what you go through to extract the honey necessary?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Well, the process is relatively simple and it's always remained that way, and the terms filtering and um sterilising or uh pasteurising got added because the supermarkets do that, and beekeepers never really have done a lot of any pasteurizing at all. Ah, okay. It doesn't need it. Uh natural honey straight from the hive doesn't need to be pasteurized, it is clean and sterile in the first place. Um but we literally put it in a centrifuge or a spinner, a bit like a spin dryer um or a washing machine going very very fast in one direction. The combs go in the drum and the centrifugal force throws the honey out. And it's as simple as that. Uh it drops to the bottom of the drum where there's a small reservoir and a tap, and you put a a 30 kilogram or 20 kilogram bucket beneath the tap, open the tap, and the honey comes out, and you could eat it at that point. Oh my. It might have a few things in it, like bits of wax and your dead bee, but apart from that, um it'd be perfectly edible.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Oh, I'm hungry just thinking about it, I must say. Oh, that does sound quite delicious. Uh right, Digital Explorers. I'm gonna pass over to you now because I believe you've got a few questions for Mark.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

How did you become a beekeeper?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Well, it was because of uh my family involvement with bees, really. When I was a teenager, my dad's older brother had kept bees for 30 or 40 years, and then my dad started keeping uh bees, and I sort of got roped into it. I'm sure there are many of you here that get involved with some of your parents' activities in one way or another, and bees just happen to be what we did.

unknown 6:40

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Would you like to be a beekeeper? No. Oh, okay, yeah. Phobias of bees possibly not a profession for you then. All right, next then I don't want to get stunned. Next question, then please.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Um, hello, why are bees so important for the environment?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Well, bees provide the fertilization process effectively to produce seeds and fruits. So that's not only for humans, that's for the birds to eat the seeds in the field so they can feed then their young and live, etc. Uh we mainly think of them as for being very important to produce our perishable foods. Anything from bananas, avocados, raspberries, um, marrows, cucumbers, anything that's a perishable food only exists because it's been pollinated. And without the pollination, two-thirds of your food wouldn't exist. It's amazing, isn't it, when you think about all the food that we eat.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

It's quite a lot, isn't it? Two-thirds is a huge huge proportion of uh the food that we consume. Um, good question, thank you. Right, who's next?

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Uh what do you do each day to look after the bees?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Insect itself is quite happy looking after itself in a way. The only time we really need to get in there and have a look is for disease reasons or for um the lack of honey itself. They may be starving. It does happen. If there's not enough honey around and they've grown too many bees and eaten too much of it, then there might not be enough left in there.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

What do you mean by disease reasons?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Well, um, just like humans and other animals, bees have diseases. They have viruses, bacteria, um, and problems, health problems.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

Like the common cold?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Uh not really. They do have diseases at different levels. Depends how um how uh uh strong they are and how healthy they are. So if you've got a weak colony or a weak bee that's prone to disease, there'll be a lot more of it. It's just like if a human is um run down, you get colds and flu.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Same as us here, really at the end of term, isn't it? Everyone suddenly starts to get a bit of coughs on and a bit of a uh they kind of uh start to feel unwell. Um and uh yeah, bees ha luckily have uh market to help support them and make sure that they're staying nice and healthy. Yeah, absolutely. Um awesome. Next person, then please.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

How do bees actually make honey?

SPEAKER_00 9:08

That is a very interesting question. They collect water um nectar, they collect nectar from the flowers to start with, and that nectar is about three-quarters water. There's very few sugars in it. They then fly back to the hive, and at the entrance of the hive, or just inside, they then give that nectar over to younger bees which aren't flying yet. They literally transfer the nectar to bees which only live in the hive for the first five days of their life, and they go and store it, and they add enzymes to it, and literally change it from one type of sugars to another, and they reduce it down in volume, they condense it. They've got a good air conditioning system and they condense it so that what the result is a liquid that's 95 or 98% sugars and two or three percent water. And that takes about a fortnight to happen inside the hive. Once it's finished, they'll put it in its own sealed container honeycomb, they'll put a wax cap across the front, and that'll be airtight, watertight, bacteria-proof, and that honey will ex uh exist in that cell for 10, 15, 20 years or more, and it won't go off until we go and extract it, and then it's at risk.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

It's pretty impressive, isn't it, to think how tiny they are and what they actually are doing there. And tiny little honeycombs. It's not just kind of making honey, making honey is it there's a whole load of different things to do there. I love that they that so they put the wax on top of the the kind of each kind of little mini honeycomb, to the other thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

It's exactly the same as a jar in your cupboard where you put the lid on. The bees put their own lid on the honeycomb, and it's a sheet of wax across the front. And to get that honey out, to spin it in a centrifuge, we have to s slice that front off.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Oh, how interesting. I didn't know that. Awesome. Thank you so much for that question. Um, who's next then, please?

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Me. What makes Claremont honey different or special to any other normal type of honey?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Well, sometimes you can get um processed honeys in supermarkets which uh are blended, but the Claremont honey isn't blended, it's literally straight out of the comb, straight into the bucket, straight into the jar. Because Sainsbury's one liked to have the same shade or the same flavour, so just like they blend teas and coffees, supermarkets blend fifty gallon drums of honeys to try and come up with the same flavour. So you get the same one, but it's all a mix mash of different honeys from all over the world.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

Have you ever been stung by one of them?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Loads of times. But now hopefully not as frequently. Not as frequently. And I'm a bit immune to it now, so it's no worse than having a COVID joke. You can only get used to it after a while.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

I don't think I would. Yeah, I suppose it doesn't think of needles.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, but Cuban's probably probably not for you then.

unknown 12:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Possibly.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

I've got another question.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Please do.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

Did anyone who did anyone in your family who looks after bees have a phobia of bees and had to get over their phobia?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Uh not but about bees. Well once I've got a phobia of snakes. But nobody w there's no phobias in our family that I'm aware of about bees.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Okay, next question then please.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

What should we do if we see a bee near us?

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Well, if you see a bee f if if it's flying near you, just try and ignore it and continue walking. Um if you're sitting in a uh on your garden table having a picnic and the bee comes along and starts wandering around your head and being inquisitive, just try and act as you would have done before when you didn't know it was there and just ignore it and it will fly off most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

It is that thing, isn't it? If you kind of just ignore it, it will it will go away, won't it?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

More importantly, what you don't do is become agitated and start moving your hands around vigorously or trying to brush your hair in because that it will be attracted to the agitation to the noise and the fuss and Well just try and try and ignore it.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's always that thing of trying to ignore it, or uh uh it's also we are a lot bigger than they are.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

Is it true that if you be like if a bee stings you m uh if like a whole uh like family of bees um sting you more than fifty times, you can die.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

It's very, very rare for anybody to be killed by bees in the UK because there's lots of them being attacked at once. And then it's very very rare for someone to dive because people just don't get attacked that way. You can die if you're if you're allergic to them and you just get one sting and you're an you get an anaphylactic shock and no treatment in time. But it's very rare. It's only African African bees which are a lot more aggressive that have been known to uh attack people. Well it would it's interpreted as an attack, but they were annoying the bees in the first place, and the bees are just defending themselves. You go and annoy a fox or a dog or a wolf or a lion, it's gonna do something.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah, we've got nothing nothing to worry about in this country. So uh yeah, don't worry. And uh yeah, just have to if you get if you do get stung, you just have to make sure that you seek um seek the right medical attention.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

Roughly, how many litres of honey do you make a day or a week or an hour?

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Great question. How much honey?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

The flow of honey being made depends entirely upon the weather and the time of year. So in the Northern Hemisphere in the UK, you get two weeks in May and two weeks in July when you get vast amounts of honey in compared to the rest of the year. And they're called the honey flows, and you get two hard honey flows. And we're just at the end of the first one, and this hot weather might bring it back on, but it had stopped during the cold weather. So in other words, there was no honey coming in during the cold weather at all when they were beginning to starve. Now the weather's hot um turned, we're getting 20 or 30 degrees C, then there'll be a lot more nectar coming through. And the hive might increase on a good nectar flow by five kilograms, ten kilograms a day in liquid coming in from the flowers. That's quite a lot, isn't it? That's got a lot, that's a lot of honey.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

What do you like about being a beekeeper?

SPEAKER_00 15:40

You get connected to the natural world and you can um get to know your bees and you can get to know their moods. And each hive is different, and they've got their own own character. And I like to try and finish off when I'm working with the bees, um that finish off in a way that means they're happy to see me there. So I sometimes take my gloves off and have them walk walking on my hands if we're leaving on a good on a good note in the and they're not upset. Um if they are upset, then I don't take my gloves my gloves off. But you know, we have to wait and see. It depends on the weather and what mood they wake up in, I think.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Does it literally depend on that? Because it kind of like can you sense it when you kind of go to a hive?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Um yeah, we had this yesterday at the hive not too far from here. I didn't, I was a bit nervous about opening it up before I even got to take the boxes apart. Yeah. I told my friend who was there, I think you better make sure you put your gloves on properly and seal all entrances, wrists, ankles, everything, because I think this one is going to be awkward. And they were fine. We got on with it and it all worked out alright, but there were a few stinger me on the gloves.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Oh funny, you can kind of sense that as it kind of comes in.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, you look at them and think this is not going to be a good day.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

That's kind of like classrooms, actually. Yeah, we can sense it kind of going, oh, it's a bit windy outside today. I think the children might be a bit crazy and it tends to happen. Yeah, how funny. Um, what a skill that is to have as well, to be able to kind of sense that vibe off of a hive. Great question, by the way. Thank you so much. Who's next?

SPEAKER_04 17:10

I've heard about African bees. Um, I have heard that they release a fluid to tell like the rest of their hive there's danger and like preparedisting.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah, the bees that all the different species of bees talk to each other via um body scent via something called pheromones. Um, and it depends what they're releasing, which pheromone it is they're releasing as to what that means in their bee language. So one of the pheromones could be to kick off the aggressive attack style of defend the colony. Another one might be the queen is getting ready to leave on a swarm to r r um to repopulate the race elsewhere. There's we don't really understand it. We d we can't say that this pheromone A does this and pheromone B does that, but we know that they talk as a colony and communicate via scent, via smell.

SPEAKER_04 18:09

Also the wiggle bee bum dance. They communicate to tell each other about pollen by wiggling their bums. They do.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Yeah, they vibrate their bodies and their wings and they travel up the combs or they walk to the left or to the right. And they're compass, so they're they're trying to sense, they're trying to tell their colleagues, their bee mates, that there's pollen and honey two miles away northwest. So they'll dance in a particular manner which will communicate that to other bees in the hive. And if it's north, they'll walk, they'll walk up the hive repetitively, coming in a northerly direction, up the frame vertically. If it's west, they'll go left, just the same as our compass. And if it's off to the east, they'll go to the right. It's down south, south-south west, they'll go at an angle. And the amount of the vibration and the distance they travel somehow tells their colleagues or other bees that it's two miles down the road, first left on the ro first left on the corner or something. You know, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Like bee maps. That's so cool. I never knew that. This is amazing. We're learning so much about bees today. That's amazing. Wow, who would have thought that? They're kind of putting lids on their own little pots as well as telling each other and communicating in such a way. Fantastic animals. How amazing. Um, next question, please. Thank you guys. These are great. Well done.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

How can children help protect bees at home or at school?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Uh well, you can plant flower borders in your gardens that have um plenty of pollen and nectar for them to eat. You can try and not use any pesticides that uh will affect the bees. They might not kill them off, but they'll harm their sensory organs and they won't be able to fly and navigate quite so easily. Um this can go for school as well, same the same thing. So reduce the pesticides and have wild wildflower borders that look a bit tassy and a bit sort of disorganized and rough areas, but that's exactly what nature wants.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

Hmm, okay, that's cool. What skills or qualities do you think are important for being a beekeeper?

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Um, somebody who's brave and hasn't got a phobia about bees does help. Yes. Um, somebody who's prepared to experiment and find out and not be too afraid of the outcome. Um, because it might all might not be pleasant sometimes. You might get stung, but then you often get hurt in life, so go for it and try it. That's what I say.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah, give it a go. You never know. Could be could be great. You might be find your passion in life. Absolutely. Uh right, we've got one more question, I believe. Thank you guys. One more.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

What message would you like people to remember about bees in nature?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

The message really is that they are uh essential for our own well-being and for the environment and the place that you live in. Without them, the fields wouldn't be as green and they wouldn't be as pretty, and there wouldn't be any colour because there wouldn't be any flowers because they wouldn't have pollinated them. So they are essential.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah, they really are, and it's really important that we make sure that they are protected too. Um uh so uh with like I said, if we do see them, try not to chew them away and and supporting them where we can. Um I think that's really, really, uh really important to make sure that we kind of are looking after those little those little fellows. Um oh sorry, one one more question, yes, please.

SPEAKER_04 21:42

Um people have made flowers with like green card for the leaves and then a pom-pom in the middle, and then they've made some sugar water and they've put poured a bit of sugar water on the pom-pom. They've put the flowers outside and and seen how many bees land on it. Would that actually help?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Um, they may be landing on it for the sugar, but they might be landing on that pom pom for a different reason. They might be if it's got a black or dark centre then that dark absorbs heat. So the inf infrared would uh the infrared light that is warmth to the bees might be concentrated on that black pompon and they would might just rest there to keep warm. But yeah, they might well uh they can smell water. Water oh we we can't smell water, but they they have bees that go out looking for water only. So they can find water when and take that back to the hive.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

So would that experiment work?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yes it would, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Give it a try. Give it a try and let us know how you got on. And same for you guys at home. If you fancy making a bit of a uh a uh bee experiment in your garden, then do let us know how you got on.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

You might get a better result if you put a drop of honey in the middle there, instead of sugar.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

There we go. Top tip from the expert. Absolutely right. Mark, thank you so much for joining us today. Um, we've mentioned Claremont honey. Come is this something that we can get hold of? Is this uh can we purchase it from anywhere? Uh is it is it available, Yel? Oh my sister got some it's a yeah? Okay, I haven't seen it, that's why I'm um intrigued. You've all tr have you all tried it? Have you all had it?

unknown 23:22

I haven't.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah, we we bottled up um about 30 or 40 um small one ounce breakfast jars um breakfast jars, which um Kate very kindly handed out in some way. Um and you can buy it um on the webpage, the dedicated webpage that I've got on Beesmax for Claremont. So there's videos up there and there will be more, there's only one or two at the moment. Um pictures and um you can buy it online there and it'll be delivered to the appropriate place and facilities for parents to pick up.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Fantastic. And for anyone who is interested, what is that website that we could pop to?

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Uh Bsmax.org forward slash forward slash shop.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Awesome, thank you so much. I am definitely going to be getting some honey for my summer. I think I'm gonna have to. Um well Mark, thank you so much for joining us today and helping us understand a bit more about the amazing work uh that you and uh the bees do um and the care that goes into producing the Claremont honey. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Before we finish, a couple of reminders for everyone. Please remember no sweets and no squidgies in school, please. These rules help keep the school environment calm, safe, and focused for everyone. This week has been a reminder that learning can come from the most unexpected places, from Victorian wake-up calls to tiny but powerful work of bees. Keep asking questions, keep sharing talents, and keep looking after the world around you. Thanks for listening to the download.