Bee keeping

Our lovely hosts, Stan and Dani have been beekeeping for a number of years - both here in Wales and in the Lakes District.

It was such a great opportunity for the kids to learn a little about bees and how to keep them, as they went about their normal tasks getting ready for Spring time.

Dani was busy making frames for a new hive - so she took the time to explain to the kids how they were made, why, a little history ( which they had to then back up with some research for their own blogs) as well as some demos on the different stages of the bees life and honey making process. 

Below is a frame which used to hold brood - the bees. The discolouration is frmo the coocoon type cell they live in before they emerge.

and here is one I prepared earlier.. a cleaned out comb - no honey

Dani has a honey store  at markets and uses this honeycombe  on her table.  Its full of honey and is dripping with it..

This is Dani in her sunny little pozzi in the sun making frames.  Machinery makes the moulds by pressing them out in all sizes. One of these frames, when filled with honey weighs 2 and half pounds ( about a KG)

I also learnt that the brooding gestation period for bees was different depending on what status they were -  21 days for a worker 23 for a drone and 16 for a queen... and the HIVE decides on who is going to be Queen... not her.. they dispose of her once she has stopped being fertile... 

There were a number o things I hadn't known as well... so prepared to be 'taught' as we were... A certain Mr Langstroth invented to movable frames in 1786 in order for bee keepers to look at the honey and bees safely.  Before this, hey ha straw dome like hives ( see below picture) where the bees used to build wild combs from the top down. The bee keepers would have to kill he bees to see the honey or check on them.

Anyway - lots of info collected and a wonderful afternoon for the kids with hands on experiences.

Eltville

Europe is impossibly cute.  There are villages which I suspect many of the houses are made from Gingerbread, and I expect hansel and Gretel to come skipping out of any moment.

I can't imagine how it must be to actually live in one of these places.. probably pretty cramped if we were to be totally honest.

We visited a very cute little medieval village called Eltville which is on the Rhine.  It has a huge Schloss ( sort of a castle) over looking the Rhine. The gardens are still magnificent in winter and a place of peace and beauty.  No wonder so many office workers come here to eat their lunch. 

I have photos of me about 18 years ago sitting on the exact spot Morgan and Lilly are in the photos below.

This is a working well in the middle of the courtyard of the Schloss.  Its a long long way down to the water - which surprised me, given that the river was not far away and I felt we were fairly close to the level of the the bank.

Entrance into the gardens.

Peeping out onto the Rhine

The various faces of homeschooling

Where ever we go, I take the opportunity to make it into some sort of learning experience. Having no home base does make it a little more challenging for a classroom environment, so we have to do what we can. The wonderful thing about being in the UK and having National Trust and English Heritage passes, is that these organisations are set up to educate the young folk and have so many great resources on hand to make discovering history so much more exciting. There is normally some sort of treasure hunt or trail.

In Winchester, there was a drawing treasure hunt, where the kids had to fill in the gaps of images they found around the castle keep.  Such a good way to get kids involved and looking for answers! ( lets not forget their drawing and observational skills)

So whilst at the moment, their homeschooling is focused on history, we are jamming in in lots of language skills with recall, recount, research and expression; as well as mapping and geography skills.  Maths has taken a little bit of a back seat - but we continue with times tables and I get the kids to convert currency, add up shopping bills and look at what change we will get.

While we are in Germany, we will take advantage of the real life experience of language.  (and similarly when we are in Spain and France)