Chatterbox queens

Val explains how honeybee queens ‘toot’ and ‘quack’

- Val Bourne

THE fact that I’m a twin has definitely defined me! As a tiny premature baby I spent my first six weeks in a noisy incubator, and I’ve got dodgy hearing. I’m a chatterbox, too, and it started in the womb, apparently, because twins interact and make noises over the top of each other.

I blame my worst personality trait, interrupting people, on duetting with my brother before I was even born as I’m one of those people who constantly chimes in! My brother and I were also born on the hottest day of the year – something my mother never quite forgave us for. Needless to say, he was the pretty one with the curly hair and long eyelashes, so everyone thought he was the girl. I resembled Sir Winston Churchill – and some would say I still do!

“Honeybees are under threat of extinction”