Day #579 My Very First Honey

Honey! Honey! I have honey!

You’d think, from those exclamation points that I harvested some today, but the truth is that I’ve had it for about a month. And I'm still excited about it.

The hives that I donated to Rancho Alegre made it through the winter, but Rob said only one of them was producing enough to harvest. He gave me half the honey (since I gave him the use of the bee hives), and I ended up with TWO GALLONS of honey. 

It’s been so much fun, having honey to give as gifts. And fun, too, to watch the faces of my grandchildren as they discover real honey (as opposed to store-bought, part high-fructose corn syrup honey). This stuff is just plain ole downright delicious!

Because Rob harvested the honey in June, and I still wasn’t supposed to lift anything much heavier than a quart of milk, my dear friend and fellow beekeeper Geri Taran bottled the honey up for me in jars I’d been collecting for ages.

She even put on some of my stickers that say:

How do you know

it’s pure honey

if you don’t know

the beekeeper?

Here’s just one of the happy, beautiful jars:

BEEattitude for Day #579:

       Blessed are friends who help when help is needed, for they shall rest easy.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #573 Moon Photos and Chicken Eggs

My friend Ellen Norton, who lives in Arizona, sent me this picture of the Super Moon last Saturday night.

Keep in mind that Ellen is not a professional photographer. Nor is she a professional astronomer. She was simply someone who read about the Super Moon in my blog last week and decided to try not only to see it,  but to reply to my challenge to photograph it.

Do you have any idea how good that makes me feel?

Although I started this blog simply as a way to spread information about honey bees and as a way to share with you my excitement about them, the blog has evolved, through many phases. I learned about bees; I planned for their arrival; I picked them up and installed them on my deck; I worked with them (and THOSE were days of a lot of ups and downs). But, most of all, I enjoyed them. I gloried in their sweet presence in my life.

You also shared my anguish when I developed an allergy to their stings, as I contemplated what I was going to do, how I was going to handle this new development. You saw them leave, and I'm sure you heard my cry, even though it was a written one.

Now I still talk about bees (sometimes), but I've found many other adventures to share with you. And sometimes, you've taken me up on those adventures, even though I've been unable to join in myself. Case in point: the Super Moon Saturday night. Calhoun GA was cloudy. Tempe AZ wasn't. Thank you, Ellen.

Example number 2:

When I wrote about getting over my fear of chickens, it inspired one of my blog-readers, Geri Taran, to install chickens in her back yard.

•  Esmerelda is an Americauna 
•  Tootsie is a Whiterock
•  Roxie is a Barred Rock
•  Isabella is a New Hampshire Red, and 
•  Negrita is a Black Copper Marans. 

Now, I occasionally buy eggs from Geri, and I know they came not only from chickens I've met, but from chickens I know by name.

Moon photos and chicken eggs. Those, my friends, are only two of the many wonderful benefits to having kept a blog for all these days.

BEEattitude for Day #573:

       Blessed are those who explore new fields of flowers, for they shall find nectar and pollen they never knew existed.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com Please buy them from an independent bookstore or directly from my website.

my eBooks for Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Fran+Stewart 

Day #257 Geri's Datura

I’ve talked before about my friend Geri Taran. She founded the Georgia Writers Association and headed it up until it was taken over by Kennesaw State University. Geri’s had an interesting (understatement alert!) life for sure. And she used to keep bees years ago. Once I started getting into beekeeping, Geri decided to take it back up again.

The last time I visited her, she showed me a datura the birds or squirrels or somebody like that had planted in her yard. The thing’s three feet tall now. Datura  (also called Angel's Trumpet) is poisonous, as I hope you realize. I found out about lots of poisonous plants when I was researching Yellow as Legal Pads, the second of my mysteries. I bought Deadly Doses: a Writer’s Guide to Poisons by Serita Deborah Stevens. Fascinating. For a mystery writer, that is.

But now I’ve found out that bees are usually smart enough to avoid plants that have toxic nectar. Good thing. These flowers are so inviting, I should think the bees would have a hard time ignoring them. I took two pictures – one of the flower bud just as it’s beginning to unfurl, and one of the blooming beauty (which, by the way, is about 10 inches long!)

Here’s the bloom. My camera made it look purple, but it’s really a bright white.

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY,

GERI!

BEEattitude for Day # 257:
       Blessed are those who let surprise plants thrive, for they shall be rewarded with beauty, rather like Fran’s thistle flowers.


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Day #241 Bad News / Good News

Let me start by proclaiming that my bees didn’t do it!

On Wednesday morning I went to my friend Geri’s house, at her request, to help her do a hive inspection. Right in the middle of the process, one of her bees stung me on my left hand, on that web between my thumb and my index finger.

Not a problem. I scraped it off, being careful not to squeeze the sac, and kept going. Not half a minute later, another bee stung me in the same location – but on my right hand. A matching set of stings. Once again, I scraped off the little dangling venom sac, and continued helping Geri.

By the time I got home, both hands were red and itchy, but not enough to slow me down.

By Thursday, they were swollen. My normally slim hand was taking on the aspects of a red balloon. So I stopped by the Publix pharmacy and bought an antihistamine. Came home. Took one. And the swelling headed up the inside of my wrist.

I have no idea whether the bee sting or the antihistamine is to blame.

I’ll be heading to the doc on Friday, and I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Now, the good news: Thursday around noon I checked both my hives (and didn’t get stung even once, I’ll have you know). I put a honey super on top of the yellow hive, filled with those frames I assembled a few days ago That about good timing! Here it is with all three layers. The other hive is just squeaking along. They still have a lot of comb to draw out before they’ll need another layer.

BEEattitude for Day # 241:

       Blessed are those who conduct short, efficient meetings, for they shall be loved by the attendees.

_______________________________ 

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Day #204 Still a Lot to Learn

Tuesday I spent some time with my friend Geri, who has a 10-frame hive.

She knew as little about hers as I knew about mine. I’d told her I’d help her open it up for the first check since she brought it home last week.

Guess what? I hadn’t a clue whether I was looking at something positive or something negative. So she called Tommy, who—bless him indeed—stopped by and set her mind at rest. It seems the hive is working just fine. All that comb built between the frames is to be expected (I’d thought it was only in MY hive!)

This just goes to prove that I still don’t know nearly enough about bees. Of course, Tommy’s been around bees for 40 years, since his grandpa and dad had hives. So maybe Geri and I aren’t doing too badly with our less-than-a-month of experience…

BEEattitude for Day # 204:

       Blessed are those who take time to practice, for they shall gradually get better at what they do.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My knees that still work

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