SPRING has sprung and the bees are starting to buzz as first crops appear, which means it is time for Wilsford scientist Dr Mark Fife to get busy,

He is a genetics scientist and has kept bees for 15 years. “Over the winter, the queen and a minimum of 10,000 bees will be in the hive. They cluster round the queen to keep her warm and slowly move round the hive eating their winter stores of honey. In February, the queen will start laying and the worker bees have got to keep her warm. To do that, the bees munch honey and vibrate their flight muscles, which generates the necessary amount of heat."

His now fine-tuned apiary skills produce bumper crops of his own brand of runny Henge Honey, sold in village shops across Wiltshire.

He says the many types plants on nearby Salisbury plain which flower between February and November give him triple the honey crop of some of his bee keeping friends. “The bees flourish because of the diversity of wild flowers on the plain.”

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