Bob Lemon, 78, started keeping bees when he was just six years old at
the family home in Hapton, Norfolk. His father taught him how to
pursue a swarm by banging a coal shovel with a heavy door key. In
adulthood, he kept more than 70 hives stretching across the
countryside from Cambridge to Ely, which produced honey for top food
stores such as Fortnum and Masons and Harrods. As a member of the
Cambridgeshire Beekeeping Association, Mr Lemon spent 50 years
teaching others the art of apiary. He still produces endless jars of
honey from his own home in Highfields, while his son has taken over
the active side of the business.

"You do these things, but you don't expect a reward for the things you
do in life," said Mr Lemon. At one of the CBKA meetings, an
immunologist from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge came to test the
beekeepers for their resistance to stings. "She took one look at me
and said 'He's probably got more bee venom than blood in him.'" Mr
Lemon is stung thousands of times a year but says all beekeepers
develop resistance to the venom. "I'd rather get stung by a honey bee
than a nettle. You just get used to it and half the time you don't
even realise you've been stung."

The Cambridgeshire Beekeeping Association (CBKA) surprised Mr Lemon
with his award, for 50 years of service, at their annual meeting on
March 6. Stephen Flack, on behalf of the CBKA secretary, said: "By
1942, Bob was an experienced beekeeper. He and his father possessed
few commercially produced pieces of equipment and relied on folk
wisdom, improvisation and inventiveness. A Perspex air canopy provided
the ideal hive observation post, complete with gun sights, until the
men from the ministry took it away. Bob has more than qualified for
his award."

SOURCE:
http://tinyurl.com/2pljdf

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