"The Bee Show, which will form part of the Horticultural Society’s Exhibition at the Vicarage, on the 18th July, will be something more than the ordinary manipulations to which we have been accustomed of late years.

The Bee tent will be pitched quite apart from the Flower Show, so that there will be no risk of the Bees being made wild, as occured once before. There will be several candidates examined for Experts’ certificates by an Examiner appointed by the British Bee-keepers’ Association, and their manipulations alone will be very instructive to all desirous of keeping Bees. The Middlesex Bee-keepers’ Association offer a silver and a bronze medal for competition, and a local committee have arranged a schedule of prizes, which, it is hoped, will draw together a good exhibition of hives and other appliances. The prize fund still requires a few pounds to enable the exhibition to be made entirely free to all who pay for admission to the flower show. Major Fair, 10, Anlaby Road, Teddington, or Mr. James Mason, Broad Lane, Hampton, will be happy to receive contributions. The Middlesex Bee-keepers’ Association is now a very thorough organisation, with a net-work of local committees and secretaries all over the County. It endeavours to instruct cottagers’ and others in the best methods of raising honey, the great bulk of which evaporates for want of Bees to collect it. Some people give Bees a bad character for spoiling their plums, but this is a mistake, as they are not fitted by nature with any appliance for cutting the skins. If anyone is foolish enough to leave over-ripe plums on his trees, and a wasp or bird taps them, it is quite possible, that Bees being extremely economical insects, could not pass a lot of sweets running to waste without trying to save some, but they never start the mischief. There is only one objection to Bee-keeping, but that is a very pointed one; it may, however, easily be guarded against by veil, gloves, etc. Beginners should not be taken in by a few old hands they see at shows, who pretend they rather like being stung, but before commencing operations, should take care to render themselves invulnerable."

Source: The Hampton Hill Parish Magazine - 1888 June

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