THERE’S a real buzz about the latest guests at Stratford Butterfly Farm.
Matthew Ingram, a beekeeper from Holt Hall Apiary, will be paying a flying visit to the tourist hotspot on Tuesday May 28 from 10am to 3pm – along with his bees – to teach visitors all about these vital pollinators and how to interact with them.
Holt Hall Apiary is a small independent Bee Farm in Staffordshire with over 140 hives.
Visitors can also discover the world of spiders and in particular a new inhabitant which has just gone on display – a female Golden Orb-Weaver.
Although Stratford Butterfly Farm has successfully bred them in the past, these spiders have not been on display for several years. The spiders are normally found across South and Eastern Africa but can be found on islands as far as the Seychelles.
Each generation lasts only one year and once the females have laid their eggs, they die soon after. Each female can lay several egg sacs with hundreds of eggs in each. The spiders weave large finely meshed webs up to 1.5 metres wide and they mainly feed off beetles, locusts, butterflies, and other large insects.
