I recently attended a fantastic event organised by Facebook to help businesses boost their social media presence using Facebook ads and Instagram posts and stories. It was a brilliant day, specifically aimed at military veterans. (For anyone not sure, this means people who’ve served in the Army, Navy or Air Force that are now turning their hands to business in the civilian world.)
I loved it – especially as it gave me the chance to meet some awesome business folk who I’ve been liaising with by email – faces to names and all that!
One such ‘new friend’ is John Geden, the owner of a honey-producing business on the south coast. John’s company, Sinah Common Honey, was this year’s very proud winner of a Soldiering On Award for Business! (More about that later…) John and I have been chatting by email as he now receives support from the fantastic X-Forces Enterprise, the organisation behind the Soldiering On Awards (SOA).
I’ve been working with SOA for around eight years and it’s been an incredible journey! You may have seen my pics over the years – often with the most inspirational veterans you could ever imagine meeting – and also (starstruck!) celebrities, politicians and the occasional amazing award-winning dog! (Here I am with Ziggy, one of the wonderful 2019 Soldiering On Award Animal Partership Finalists.)
Anyway, John and I chatted over a glass of Merlot about his bees – he has 20 million of them!! And I learned something new…
(A few things, actually!)
- Only 1% of bees are male. (That’s not the good part.)
- Only the queen bee produces baby bees. (It gets better.)
- All the men bees battle to mate with the queen – it’s their sole ambition in life. (Yes, really.)
- And they do it in mid-flight!
Now, this is the interesting part…
- The “lucky” chap who successfully manages to do the business does not go on to live a happy life as the queen’s consort. This is no Victoria and Albert happy ending tale, sadly.
At the point of his greatest pleasure, the poor bee ejaculates so violently that his willy gets blown off!! He then flops back down to earth to die a miserable death, while his girlfriend merrily mates with the next man-bee that catches her up. This new partner has the delightful job of removing his predecessor’s willy before he can insert his own in this kamikaze love-making ritual of making new baby bees.
Well – you didn’t expect me to tell you that today, did you?
Back to business: aside from discussing bee porn, John and I first chatted when I emailed him for a quote for the Soldiering On Awards’ blog. Nominations for the 2020 awards are now open and a dozen or so previous winners have said why it’s a brilliant opportunity to nominate someone relevant to receive an award too. You can see their quotes via the SOA website’s news tab.
So, if you know of anyone who has served (or still serves) in the British military that inspires you and has accomplished something worthy of shouting about, please take a few minutes to put them forward. It’s a life-changing honour that goes beyond one glitzy awards ceremony; it’s a chance to really promote their cause and give them an opportunity to benefit from an excellent business support package from X-Forces Enterprise. You can find out more about starting the process here.
Incidentally, the men-bees (really called drones) don’t work; they laze around all day while the women do all the work.
John also told me that beeswax comes from their bum, but that’s another story for another day.
You can follow Sinah Common Honey on social media to see all the lovely products they sell. I’ll be popping down to Hayling Island at some point to meet the bee collective, so no doubt I’ll share pics on my Instagram!
Don’t forget, you can nominate someone for a Soldiering On Award here, and if you can’t think of anyone to put forward, please share the link to help raise awareness, thanks!