We were welcomed back by our president, Mrs Katherine Corkish, who began the meeting by reminding us of our recent activities.

Top of the list was the Christmas lunch aboard the Tinsel Train which was much enjoyed by all who attended.

As usual, the food was excellent.

We also held a Christmas party which was attended by visitors from other institutes in the south of the island. It was very enjoyable ,with games and a quiz followed by pizzas and quiches.

The Book Club had a lunch on January 11, which was attended by 10 of us at the Shore Hotel and, again, the food was first rate (as was the company).

A few days before Christmas Day Mrs Jane Galbraith held a demonstration at Arbory Chapel and taught those present how to make floral table decorations for Christmas.

Just as last year, it was a great success.

Mrs Corkish then took us through upcoming events which included several celebrating our 70th anniversary this year.

She then introduced out speaker Mrs Debbie Corcas who would be telling us about bee keeping.

Mrs Corcas became very interested in bees and began a course five years ago.

She said it was a long slog but she loved it and still does and finds it calming.

The Isle of Man is a good place to keep bees as there are very few bee diseases here and there are strict rules prohibiting importing of bees.

She advised us that calm is essential in dealing with bees so as not to alarm them. If people panic and flap about there can be trouble.

Summer is a busy time with checking the swarming when the bees fly off to find a new place to live.

They live for six weeks in summer but in the winter they can live for about six months.

The hive consists of one queen which lives in the bottom of the hive, worker bees and drones (males) which mate once and then die. The workers fly then return and do their ’waggle dance’ to show the others where to go to find nectar.

Bees have many ways of serving humans. Bee venom can help with arthritis and MS for example and honey has been known for centuries to help with wounds.

Mrs Corcas apologised to us for going over her allotted time but we would have been very happy to have listened for longer as it was fascinating.

Mrs Sarah Philips, gave the vote of thanks

Our next meeting will be on February 10 at 7.15pm in Arbory Methodist Chapel.

Sheena Gilbert

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