The Niagara Beekeepers' Association had as guest speaker tonight, Peter
Donovan, the man who worked with Br. Adam at Buckfast Abbey for many years
and who is now the head of the beekeeping programme there.  He is in
Canada for four weeks, speaking to beekeepers' groups and visiting and
checking on the Canadian Buckfast breeders.
 
He gave an interesting talk including some technical  information about
queen breeding.
 
His talk was peppered with humourous stories.
 
I will re-tell one of them.  Pardon me if this is off topic!
 
Br. Adam and Peter Donovan were going to an out-apiary one day.  Br. Adam
said they had a great deal of work to do and would be gone a long time, so
it would be nice if they brought two bottles of sparkling mead along with
them . (Buckfast Abbey is famous for its mead.) There was a stream near
this beeyard that they took water from, to use in the making of mead.
Br. Adam said, let's leave the mead in the stream , to keep it cool while
we do our work.
 
When they returned to the stream, the bottles were gone.
 
Peter Donovan noticed that there were tents nearby, and suspected that
some soldiers might have taken the mead.
 
He called out when he saw a sergeant, and told him that some chemicals
they had put in the river to chill had been taken .......
 
After they had been back at the Abbey for a while they received a call
from the adjutant.  He wanted to know what the antidote to those
"chemicals" was.
 
Peter Donovan told him that anyone who drank the "chemicals" should take
two tablespoonfuls of castor oil!!!
 
But that's not the end of the joke.  He had told the sergeant near the
beeyard, earlier in the day, that the "chemicals" were used to sterilise
drones!!!
 
(He wondered what the mead thiefs felt like after the sergeant told them
what they had swallowed.)
 
 
Regards,
Rob
 
 
Robert C.L. Watson
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pipe organ technician    organist - choirmaster    early woodwind player
beekeeper    homebrewer   tenor