Aslan's Apiary
Knocknagoney Parish in East Belfast recently held the official opening of Aslan's Apiary, which is situated at the Aslan Centre in the church grounds. Aslan's Apiary is part of an Eco-Congregation environmental improvement project with church and community working well together as good stewards of the local environment.
Pupils from Knocknagoney Primary School were invited along to see the apiary and David McCartney, the parish beekeeper, gave them a demonstration on how the hives were assembled and how smoke was used to subdue the bees when the hives are open. The children were also able to see a colony of bees in an observation hive.
The Revd Canon John Bell, chair of Killinchy and District Beekeepers Association, was also on hand to talk to the children about beekeeping and to tell them how Samson, in the book of Judges, had been able to extract honey from an eleven-framed hive, in the form of the ribs of a deceased lion.