Teenager Margaret Ribet explains what is involved in keeping bees for the production of honey.
Fifteen year old Margaret Ribet learned beekeeping from her mother. When her mother was away one day she had to use the knowledge and experience she had gained to catch a swarm single-handed.
We're always ready for swarms to come out.
Honey bees are social insects, and a colony is centred around the queen bee. The role of the queen bee is to lay eggs, but apart from this, she has no other function. The rest of the work is carried out by drones and worker bees. No single bee takes overall responsibility, it is the hive mind that influences the actions of the bees.
A worker bee’s duties indicate what stage it is at in its life cycle. Young workers clean out cells and care for the baby bees. As they grow up they attend to the queen, become sentries, and keep the hive cool by fanning it with their wings. Only older bees go out to forage for nectar and pollen.
This episode of 'Junior Journal’ was broadcast on 9 October 1963. The reporter is Máire Ní Mhurchadha.
‘Junior Journal’ was an RTÉ Radio series looking at the lives of young people in Munster in the 1960s, and was compiled and presented in the Cork Studios by Maire Ni Mhurchadha and Sile Ni Bhriain.
Consisting of interviews with children, teenagers and young adults on their interests, hobbies, education and family, it also features music performances from young contributors. First broadcast in November 1962, it ran until October 1968 .
