The Royal Agricultural Showground at Stoneleigh is THE venue for UK beekeepers around this time of the year.
I avoided the full scrum for bargain bits – apparently early in the day the competition for the best bargains can be quite keen so I took my time. The route from the M40 was easy so my journey was well within the suggested time.
One of the things I half wanted to see was was the hexagonal hive, featured in the most recent edition of Beecraft and elsewhere and sold by Fragile Planet.
http://www.fragile-planet.co.uk/buydb.php?Key=155
However, I was rather wary of getting keen on it when I’d only just started with my national hive. I can go to Fragile Planet when I visit my daughter if I change my mind. These octagonal hives certainly look pretty – partly for their colours (lilac, cornflower and can’t remember the third)and partly because they look rather like a rocket from the BBC TV programme called the Clangers. Lastly, for a mathematician like myself, the octagon like the hexagon has lots of satisfying symmetry and the capability to tessellate.
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