Day #182 Oh Dear! Too Many Flower Choices?

I just read that honeybees have a tendency to focus on one particular type of flower at a time, which is why it’s possible to have clover honey/ macadamia nut honey / sourgum honey / tupelo honey and such like. And here I am planting all sorts of different flowers and veggies in my yard so my bees will have lots of choices.

It seems like every time I read something lately, it makes hash of what I read last week or last month. Isn’t it great to know there are so many people experimenting with different ways of keeping the bees happy?

So, I’m going to keep on planting the flowers and shrubs that I love, and the bees will figure out how to deal with it.

BEEattitude for Day # 182:

       Blessed are those who love us enough to plant delicious flowers for us, for we shall enjoy whatever they plant and shall pollinate it well.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The Gwinnett Choral Guild. I love singing with them.

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #181 Grandma's Irises

My father’s mother was a Mississippi farm wife. One of the most poignant memories of my childhood is my watching her on her knees, wearing an old blue faded sunbonnet, weeding her iris garden. I wanted so much to help her, but she was not the sort of grandmother to encourage anyone to poach on her precious time alone with her flowers.



Grandma Stewart's Irises



Long after her death, I visited my Aunt Mary, who had taken some of the irises from her mother’s garden and planted them at her own place in Tennessee, where they had multiplied into enormous beds of deep purple, light lavender, and multi-colored wonder. Aunt Mary gave some of each color to me, and I planted them at my house in Suwannee. Then, when I moved to my current house, I lugged irises along with me, leaving plenty for the enjoyment of the people who’d bought my house.

Yesterday I was out in the front yard, filling the bird feeder, and I saw that several of Grandma’s irises had shot up those distinctive tall stems, topped with furled buds. This is what some of them looked like the spring after I moved into this house. Now these particular ones have pink dianthus growing around their feet

I hope my bees will enjoy them as much as I do when they finally bloom again this year.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My grandchildren, who are always welcome to share my joys.    

Day #180 Bee Forecasting

I visited someone (who prefers to remain anonymous) a while back, and when we walked up near her beehives, she said, “The girls are pretty happy today.”

How could she tell, I asked, as skeptical as this cow.

“Well, they just sound happy, don’t you think?”

It reminded me of my brother-in-law, a retired wheat farmer. Ask him what the weather will be like for the next few days, and instead of looking at the newspaper or the TV, he’ll wander outside, look up, take a sniff or two, and deliver his prediction, which most times turns out to be exactly right.

Someday I hope I know my bees as well as Marvin knows the breeze.

BEEattitude for Day # 180:

       Blessed are the weather forecasters, for they shall provide endless entertainment.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My umbrella   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #179 Rats!

Friday morning I called H & L Bee Farm to be sure I could pick up my bees next week, and they said that half their shop had been destroyed by a tornado. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and only a few hives were blown over, but they’re still in a tizzy trying to get organized to put the packages of bees together,

GROAN

it may be another couple of weeks before I can pick up my girls.

ANOTHER GROAN

Still, let’s look on the bright side.

Ø  This way my bees will be avoiding all the heavy winds and thunderstorms that have beset Gwinnett County over the last week and look to be continuing for another few days at least.

Ø  My garden plants will be that much taller and that much closer to needing pollination.

Ø  The Mack truck that would have run me down if I’d driven to Ocilla this week will be somewhere else altogether when I drive down there later this month—see, the tornado at H&L saved my life!

Ø  I’ll have the time to watch that Installing Your Package of Bees DVD a couple more times, so I’ll be that much more ready.

Okay, now I feel better.

BEEattitude for Day # 179:

       Blessed are those who see the bright-side, for they shall avoid discouragement. If we bees got discouraged, nothing would ever be sweet!

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Fudge made with honey. Yum!   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #178 Feeling Encouraged

We had a Board meeting last night, where we sat over dinner and discussed what we want the Gwinnett Beekeepers Club to accomplish over the next year. It was lovely to see the enthusiasm of the other members. Each of us wants to encourage beekeeping and to educate people about the value of honeybees.

But the real value for me came when I mentioned that I’ll be picking up my bees next week. Instantly the experienced beekeepers were full of suggestions

v  stay calm,

v  be sure you take pictures because this is the only time you’ll open a package of bees for the FIRST time,

v  make sure the queen cage is placed in the middle of the hive body,

v  spray the bees a little bit—not too much, and

v  enjoy the process.

That was the big one—enjoy the process. It won’t help the bees one bit if I get all nervous and flustered. So, I have my checklist all made out, and I honestly think I’m as ready as I possibly can be.

Tomorrow I’m going to call the bee supply place to see if I can get an exact date for picking up my bees. Then I’ll be twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the big day and wondering if there’s anything I’ve forgotten. Maybe I’m not as ready as I think I am . . .

BEEattitude for Day # 178:

       Blessed are those who stay calm, for they shall not upset us.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Doggie bags from restaurants.   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #177 Cappings on the Cells

I can’t wait to see the different types of cell capping that will be in the hive once my bees get busy.

Cells that are capped (covered over) with brownish wax hold the brood, the baby bees.

White caps  indicate honey within. And I still feel somewhat nervous about how I’m ever going to deal with extracting the honey from the frames. But I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Big fat dome-like cappings mean that there are baby drones within.

Cells packed with yellow stuff but not capped over hold the pollen, which provides protein for the babies.

I’ll be getting them next week. Can I borrow a camera from somebody, and will you come take the pictures while I’m trying to convince 12,000 bees to go into a yellow box?

BEEattitude for Day # 177:

       Blessed are the environmentally-minded, for they shall help make this world a better place for all of us bees – and for you people, too.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Being able to figure out PowerPoint for a writer's seminar/webinar I’ll be teaching on April 16^th  at Booklogix    

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #176 Stained!

Finally! Finally, the weather cooperated enough for me to finish staining the uprights on the deck. Now I won’t have to worry about the bees getting their little feet stuck in yucky stain.

And while I was rummaging around in the garage, I came across an outdoor re-circulating fountain that a neighbor gave me six years ago when I moved into this house. It needed some work, and I hadn’t had time to fiddle with it, so I’d stuck it aside and eventually buried it under other junk. Why do I collect so much stuff in my garage? Do you do that, too? Still, I repaired it and set it up on the deck, so now there’s a fountain that drips a drop every second or so. The birds will enjoy it, I think.

I still need to buy one more cinder block so I can set the hives up off the deck surface, and then I’ll be ready. We’re almost there: Bee-Day is on the horizon!

BEEattitude for Day # 176:

       Blessed are those who are hungry for knowledge, for they shall find enjoyment all around them.

What Fran is grateful for right now:

       Bluebirds, cardinals, downy woodpeckers, pine siskins, Eastern towhees, chickadees, goldfinches, and tufted titmice, plus all the others I don’t know the names of.    

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #175 Trail Dames and a Bee at Stone Mountain

Now that I have pictures to include, I can tell you about the hike I went on, around the base of Stone Mountain, with the Trail Dames.

I found out about Trail Dames last year, when Susan Larson, a columnist with the Gwinnett Daily Post, wrote about the founder of the group.

What can I say . . . it’s for women who—like yours truly—are out of shape. I went on one hike last fall and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. The trail was one fairly easy mile to a gorgeous waterfall, then about a quarter-mile straight up. Well, maybe not straight up, but I did have to crawl part of the way and clamber over fallen trees. Half the group had stayed behind to swim at the waterfall (brrr!) and the rest of us tackled the trek to the upper falls.

I slept very well that night.

Two days ago, at 8 a.m., I met up with the group again. Twenty-two people, most of them decked out in real hiking boots and toting real backpacks, some with hoses attached to inner water reservoirs so they could sip as they went along. Two dogs -- Molly, shown above, and Buster, who led the trek. Then there was Frannie. I wore a comfortable old pair of tennis, carried a walking stick with a carved turtle at the top (I’d bought it at Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center last year), and lugged along my granddaughter’s old book-bag from fourth grade. I figured if I got left behind, they could spot the bright turquoise bag strapped to my back. Here I am (in the green shirt) at the rear end as some of us posed on one of the bridges.

You see, I’d volunteered for the “sweep” position—bringing up the rear to be sure nobody got left behind. I was concerned, though, that I’d lag so far behind, they’d forget about me. Not to worry. There were a few others as slow as I, and we dawdled along quite happily, enjoying the imposing bulk of Stone Mountain (seen here behind a tracery of bare tree branches), the gorgeous azaleas, and a bunch of wildflowers.

Did I mention the trek was five and a half miles? That’s a long way, for somebody who hasn’t walked that far in, oh, about 40 years. Who am I kidding? I’ve never walked that far before. But, I did it, and saw some wonderful sights along the way, as you can see from all these pictures that Cheryl Bharath and Laura James took. I copied them (with permission) from the Trail Dames website. If you look at this picture very carefully, you can see a bee in there.

Check out the Trail Dames www.traildames.com and come join us on an upcoming hike. I survived this one. The next one will be a breeze.

BEEattitude for Day # 175:

       Blessed are those who prepare a lovely home for us, for we shall be content and make lots of honey.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Joan, who carried my pack for me the last quarter mile.    

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #174 Honey Medicine

I've been reading a book called Honey: Gourmet Medicine by Joe Traynor. I bought it through Mann Lake, a beekeeping supply company.

Very interesting information about the ways in which honey can be used to combat diseases and disorders. That sort of information isn’t valued much in this country, since we seem to be at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry.

Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for antibiotics. But using them as a first line of defense instead of as a last resort has led to the creation of super-microbes, resistant to almost any medicine we can throw at them.

Honey, on the other hand, does not attack germs, so it doesn’t lead to any sort of resistance. It simply creates an environment where the germs cannot live. Smart, eh? Traynor even referred to a doctor in the 30s who used honey to treat patients who had cataracts. A drop of honey in each eye at night (even though it stings a bit), and rinse the eye out in the morning. Cataracts gone. It sounded like a good idea to me, and if it worked, would sure beat surgery.

The trouble with honey is that anyone can access it, and it can’t be patented, so it’s not worth the efforts of the drug industry to package.

I use it on scratches and cuts to prevent infection.

Give it a try. It’s medicine you can eat.

BEEattitude for Day # 174:

       Blessed are those who give honey a try, for they shall live in better health.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My e-book royalties. I’m so glad people are reading my books!   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #173 Whew! The yellow world around Atlanta

Busy day Saturday. I got the cinder blocks set up on the deck so I can put the hives on them. They need to be off the ground so any varroa mites and small hive beetles will fall through the screened bottom onto the wood below (where I can squash them).

I spent a fair amount of time making sure there was enough room around the blocks so I could get my broom in there to sweep off the porcupine eggs. For those of you who don’t live under a sweet-gum tree, those spiny seed-pods drop by the thousands—yes, thousands—year-round, making a barefoot romp through the yard an impossibility.

And of course, this is the time of year when the whole Atlanta area is bombarded with pine pollen. Not just a little bit. A LOT! When I moved here almost 20 years ago, I thought the street was running with urine after the first spring rain, but it was just all that bright yellow pollen swirling along the streets.

The yellow polka dots spots on my car don’t show up as much now. The good news is that my hives won't look pollen-covered at all, since they're yellow to begin with.

The plants I put in a few days ago are doing well. And some bees from the neighborhood stopped by to take a sip. The way I chose the plants at the garden center was simple: I looked for the plants that had bees working on them!

And, the best news of all--my bluebird house has babies in it!

BEEattitude for Day # 173:

       Blessed are the plants that make pollen for us to collect, for we shall spread their bounty.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My garage    

FRANattitude for the day:

         I have used entirely too many exclamation points in this post. My inner editor cringes when I do that. On the other hand, I'm happy! and I'm excited about the bees and the plants and the baby birds (!!!)

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #172 SciFri

Cathy Akers-Jordan, a regular reader of BeeKnees sent me a link to a website called ScienceFriday.com. They produce weekly snippets of very interesting science. This particular link was about bees and a type of orchid that takes advantage of the bees by bombing them with pollen. Thanks, Cathy! I loved those slow-motion photos of the plant at work.

Public Domain Photo of Pollen Grain



But then I saw another SciFri post listed on the left. Pollen Origami was the name. Well, of course I had to open it and watch the video. The Atlanta area gets a lot of pollen in the spring – a fact that I’m sure my bees will appreciate. I figure I ought to know as much about pollen as I could. Plus, I just love learning new things.

The idea is that the inside of a pollen grain dries out very easily, so the impermeable outside layer folds itself around the inside in an origami-like process, forming a waterproof protection. Fascinating! The video is great fun. Here it is.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10296

BEEattitude for Day # 172:

       Blessed are the people who plant lots of pollen-bearing flowers and trees for us, for they shall live in the middle of glory.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Whoever invented Weetabix. I know it’s more expensive than Shredded Wheat, but I don’t care. I like it. [Now you know what I ate for breakfast yesterday!]   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #171 Public Edict - Please Read for Your Own Edification

In the interest of the public good, the following edict is hereby issued:

WHEREAS: beekeeping has been established as an activity of great monetary benefit to this community, considering the increased harvests of fruits, flowers, and vegetables that result from pollination by the honeybee (Apis mellifera), and

WHEREAS: beekeepers have been shown to be a bastion of rectitude in their fight to protect the species of Apis mellifera from the depredations of chemicals, predators, and weather, and

WHEREAS: said honeybees have had an uphill battle lately where said weather, predators, and chemicals are concerned,

THEREFORE, be it hereby known that from this date and heretofore, all persons not associated with an established hive of bees will, within the next thirty (30) days, be subject to a fine of $24,197.36 and imprisonment of not more than eighty (80) days, this amount being the estimated yearly value of a honeybee hive to the community.

If, THEREFORE, a citizen does not keep at least one hive of bees, said citizen will be expected to reimburse the community for the dollars lost to that community and to suffer such retribution as shall be deemed necessary, to wit—imprisonment for eighty (80) days. During said imprisonment, said prisoner shall be fed only those foods which have not resulted, either directly or indirectly, from the pollination activities of Apis mellifera, to wit: water. Chewing on wisps of hay will be allowed, since grasses are pollinated by the wind.

THIS DECREE issued in accordance with the laws of this state and this county and this nation on the first of April in the year 2011, and hereby attested to by Narf Trawets, Clerk of the Court.

               signed by  Narf Trawets         4/1/2011

                                                                                                        Signature                                                                                               Date

BEEattitude for Day # 171:

       Blessed are those who appreciate the value of us bees, for we shall refrain from stinging them.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My good friend, Narf Trawets, born on this day. Happy Birthday, Narf!    

Day #170 Credibility

In 1938, Bodog F. Beck, M.D. and Doreé Smedley wrote Honey & Your Health. The subtitle was a nutrimental, medicinal and historical commentary.

Sounds great, eh?

They start out talking about the ways honey has been used in the thousands of years that people have known about honey.

Ø  A pot of honey on the breakfast table is one of the oldest traditions that is still in effect for many people.

Ø  Egyptian tombs show paintings of folks harvesting honey using smoke as an aid

Ø  Ancient Greeks thought regular eating of honey would help them to live longer

Ø  Ancient Romans held honey-harvest feasts, much like our modern-day Thanksgiving

Ø  Honey was often used as a medium of exchange, all the more reason to celebrate the harvest, because honey meant prosperity.

So far, all of this sounds credible. I haven’t gotten to the part yet about how honey is used successfully in the treatment of all sorts of medical conditions, although I’ve browsed through the book and found many statements I concur with.

But then, I glanced at page 80. “The average back-lot beekeeper of a small city or town harvests between fifty and one hundred pounds of surplus honey a season.”

That sounded about right. Beck and Smedley lost points with me, though, when they wrote that, in an area with abundant nectar plants, an industrious beekeeper, who was willing to learn the most up-to-date methods, could “increase this yield to two hundred pounds of honey a season per hive.” Maybe I’m overly pessimistic, but that sounds way too high to me.

They went on to say that under “special conditions and ideal management, the yield may be stepped up to three hundred or even five hundred pounds per hive.” Grrr! Do you know how hard a beekeeper would have to push a hive to get that much honey? Over-management is one of the factors in the Colony Collapse Disorder that’s been rampant in this country. European countries have not experienced CCD. Doesn’t that tell you something right there?

Greedy people trying to get every possible dollar out of their hives ought to be strung up by their toes. A truly good management practice (respecting the natural way bees operate) gives the bees a break and results in a reasonable amount of honey per hive.

So, Beck and Smedley, I’ll read your recipes for good health and maybe follow a good many of them, but I’m going to ignore that other bunk you wrote.

BEEattitude for Day # 170:

       Blessed are they who give us a break and let us behave naturally, for their honey shall be infused with love and good health.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Singing with the Gwinnett Choral Guild    

p.s. I'll be teaching a seminar for Booklogix on April 16th. Here's the link to their April Seminars page:
https://www.booklogix.com/April_Free_Seminars.html
If you can't attend in person, you can hook up to it as a webinar.

Day #169 Gotta Lighten Up

Okay. I’m tired of grumping about the rain and worrying about what it’s doing to bees throughout the area. And the birds shaking off their wet feathers and trying to find food. And the various animals, and people, too, who are caught unavoidably in the rain.

So, here are some pictures I took last week to remind us all that weather does change if we wait long enough.  

Delphinums as Epcot Center,  and

a friend I met underground at Animal Kingdom

BEEattitude for Day # 169:

       Blessed are the patient, for they shall eventually be recompensed.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The camera Millie loaned to me for my trip   

http://www.franstewart.com


And now a note about the devastation in Japan:
My good friend Doug Gazlay, who is a musician/writer/producer in Atlanta, has composed a "SongForJapan" to help raise money for relief efforts there. If you'd like to download the music from CDBaby, a hefty portion of the proceeds goes to a good cause. Here's a link to the song trailer.

Day #168 Rain, Rain, Rain

Other than a short break on Sunday, just long enough for me to dig up those hostas, it’s been raining since last Saturday, and I just read that it’s supposed to keep going, with thunderstorms no less, at least through Thursday.

Other than the inconvenience of trying to keep the bird feeders filled without getting the seed soaked, rainy days have never bothered me. All in all, I enjoy cloudy days and rainy days. Maybe it’s because I have vitiligo, a condition where there is little or no melanin in the skin, so there’s nothing to protect me from the burning rays of the sun. I go through most of the year with long sleeves or a sunbrella. Yes, that’s a word. I invented it.

The floods in 2009 weren’t any fun, but my neighborhood was safe, even when the creek that runs through my back yard grew from a gentle two feet wide to a raging torrent that I measured (after the floods were over) at more than 50 feet wide. It was easy to measure. The plants were all bent sideways

But now, with my bees arriving in a couple of weeks, I’m beginning to see rain in a different way. If my bees were here, now, in all this rain, at the end of winter with their honey stores somewhat depleted before the strong nectar and pollen flows begin, they’d be pretty unhappy, fairly restless, and possibly awfully hungry.

Think about it. If you can’t fly in the rain because the water weighs down your wings, and you’re stuck in one room with 20 or 30 thousand sisters, wouldn’t you get a bit grumpy?

BEEattitude for Day # 168:

       Blessed are those who are patient, for they shall eventually get what they need.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The squirrel-guards on the birdfeeder poles. So far, they’ve kept the squirrels on the ground, cleaning up the fallen seed.   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #167 Screened Bottoms

Check one more thing off my to-do list! Sunday I managed to staple screening onto the bottom of the hive body that will play home to my package of bees in a couple of weeks. I haven’t been able to find any screening with 1/8” squares, so I took two layers of ¼” screening and offset them, then stapled them in place. I hope it works the way it’s supposed to.

The idea is that the various little mites and beetles that bother bees will fall out of the hive through the screening on the bottom. I can just see me going on beetle-patrol, stepping on those suckers when I find them underneath the hives. The screening is supposed to be fine enough, however, to keep out robber bees from other hives. It will also prevent mice from crawling up through the bottom.

Sunday was a busy day. I also dug up some hostas to give to my daughter and to my friend Millie, then planted buckwheat in their place. Presumably, buckwheat flowers last longer than hosta blooms, so the bees ought to be happier. It seems as if everything I do lately ends with the thought I hope this works.

BEEattitude for Day # 167:

       Blessed are those who try, for they shall succeed sometimes.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The New American Shakespeare Tavern, where I saw Two Noble Kinsman last night. One more play to go (Edward III next week), and I will have seen all 39 plays by (or attributed to) Shakespeare.      

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #166 Hive Autopsies

I’ve been reading about how to do a hive autopsy—that’s the process for figuring out why all the bees in a hive died off.

I hope I never have to use this knowledge. Natural Beekeeping, the book I bought recently, has a chart (I love well-organized charts) with all the symptoms in the left column and the probably causes in the right. The last symptom on the list, caused by pesticides or chemical poisonings is: “Sudden collapse of the hive. Numerous dead bees lying around in front of the hive with their tongues sticking out” (p. 61).

If that image isn’t enough to stop you from using pesticides on your lawns and gardens, I don’t know what will. The thought of all my brave little worker bees dying, gasping for air, with their little tongues flailing, brings tears to my eyes – and I don’t even have my bees yet.

BEEattitude for Day # 166:

       Blessed are those who refuse to buy pesticides, for they shall contribute to the health of Mother Earth, and the world will be a better place for them and for us, the bees.  

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Cowan’s Book Nook in Ellijay, where I signed my books yesterday. They’re having to close that store (not enough sales), but they will keep their store in Blue Ridge GA open.

FRANattitude for Day #166

      Blessed are those who buy books from real bookstores, for they shall help keep that breed alive and well.  

http://www.franstewart.com