{"id":1649,"date":"2012-04-01T06:22:04","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T06:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2014-04-01T04:50:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T04:50:50","slug":"bee-alert-its-all-change-at-the-grange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?p=1649","title":{"rendered":"Bee Alert &#8211; it&#8217;s all change at the Grange!"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1650\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1650\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1650\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?attachment_id=1650\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1600,1200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;6300&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Image046\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Training for the largest bee farm in the UK&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1650\" alt=\"Horsington Bees\" src=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046-1024x768.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/files\/2012\/03\/Image046.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Secret training for the largest bee farm in the UK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The Blog has learnt that The Grange is embarking on a new venture to compensate for the lack of income from its wedding and party business following vociferous local opposition.<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThe secret plan, under discussion with local authority officers, is to start the country\u2019s largest bee farm in the grounds. Environmental officers estimate that it would be possible to accommodate some 7,000 hives, each one containing some 40,000 bees. That means there could be 280 million bees buzzing around Horsington by this time next year.<\/p>\n<p>In a good year the honey crop would be some 375 tons, worth about \u00a33.8 million at retail price levels. Surplus wax, used for many household products such as polish and candles, retails at about \u00a314 per pound and will bring in considerable extra income.<\/p>\n<p>However the real income from these creatures will come from supplying them to police forces and HM Customs as drug and explosive sniffers. Bees can be trained more quickly, and at a fraction of the cost of sniffer dogs. <a title=\"Sniffer bees\" href=\"http:\/\/drug.addictionblog.org\/narcotics-detection-will-honey-bees-put-dogs-out-of-work\/\" target=\"_blank\">See story<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There will be\u00a0 local employment opportunities to collect the honey and wax, and to feed the bees in winter, when their numbers will drop dramatically. The Blog understands there will jobs for about 5 people, plus a manager.<\/p>\n<p>Local opposition is expected to be strong, as it is thought that some residents will be disturbed <em>(or is it outraged?-Ed)<\/em>\u00a0 by the noise of \u00a0buzzing\u00a0bees and the honey tanker traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Local beekeepers are understood to be concerned that the new bees may steal food from established bee colonies. A prominent local beekeeper, who did not want to be named, speaking to the Blog on April 1st said \u201cThis must be stopped. Promiscuous drones from the Grange will mate with our queens and ruin the breed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Blog Exclusive! See\u00a0the\u00a0promotion video on the proposed scheme .<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xy9JZLmgrPE&amp;feature=fvwp&amp;NR=1\" target=\"_blank\">httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xy9JZLmgrPE&amp;feature=fvwp&amp;NR=1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More about bees \u2013it\u2019s really interesting<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pub quiz question<\/strong>: What is the chemical formula for beeswax?<br \/>\nC15 H31 CO2 C30 H61, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Blog has learnt that The Grange is embarking on a new venture to compensate for the lack of income from its wedding and party business following vociferous local opposition. The secret plan, under discussion with local authority officers, is to start the country\u2019s largest bee farm in the grounds. Environmental officers estimate that it &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/?p=1649\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Bee Alert &#8211; it&#8217;s all change at the Grange!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[794],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humour"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6glYD-qB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3135,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/3135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horsington.blog2.idnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}