Day #246 Baby Porcupines

Thanks to the three contestants who entered the "Shakespeare was a Beekeeper" challenge yesterday. They obviously had a lot of fun coming up with answers!

Now, on to today's information . . . .

I have absolutely no reason to connect porcupines with honey bees, other than they're both a bit prickly at times, but I couldn’t resist this photo.

For that matter, I have no idea whether this picture (gleaned, as so many are, from the internet) is really of baby porcupines or whether they’re just the creation of an artist who knows how to shape and color dough.

But, aren’t they cute?

BEEattitude for Day # 246:

       Blessed are those who use their imaginations, for they shall entertain themselves (and us).

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:
my books:  http://www.franstewart.com
my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle
my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #245 Shakespeare was a Beekeeper, Right?

Scholars have recently determined that William Shakespeare, formerly of Stratford-upon-Avon, was a hobbyist beekeeper. A vital clue to this hitherto unknown facet of his life was revealed after a thorough examination of his writings.

Do you know what that clue was?

Post your answer in a comment – or email it to me…

BEEattitude for Day # 245:

       Blessed are those who read, for their lives shall be rich beyond compare.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #244 Wishful Thinking

Remember last winter when we were all complaining about too much snow?



5 inches on the back deck



Public Domain Picture

Now, here it is summer time, and after two solid weeks of days well over 90 degrees, I’m getting wistful.

Come to think of it, though, it would be ideal if we could average the two. I'd vote for some quiet misty mornings. What’s half way between brrr and whew?

BEEattitude for Day # 244:

       Blessed are those who live in the moment the way we bees do, for they shall not waste time complaining.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #243 Squash Casserole and Beehives

Rob Alexander, one of the leaders of the Gwinnett Beekeepers Club, outdid himself Saturday. Oh, I’m sure he had some help – people who helped haul coolers and food, plates and utensils – but while all of us sat around the pavilion at Rancho Alegre (the wonderful home of www.Gwinnett.LocallyGrown.net) and ate ourselves silly, Rob cooked hamburgers, and hotdogs, and bratwurst. My friend Geri and I left before the end, but I imagine he did a great deal of the clean-up afterwards, too.

So,

THANK YOU, ROB!

You get a

Blue Ribbon!

It was a good ole American picnic, with baked beans and potato salad, brownies and fudge, squash casserole (my personal favorite of the afternoon) and coconut cake. Not too many ants. Lots of beehives.

Beehives? At a picnic?

Well, not right there in the pavilion. To check the hives, we had to walk across the field. More than a dozen people at a time gathered around a line of hives, asking questions of Tommy Bailey (the other club leader), and learning a lot.

That’s what beekeeping is all about – learning.

BEEattitude for Day # 243:

       Blessed are those who enjoy good conversation as they eat, for they shall have true nourishment.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #242 Flying High

For those of you who asked – my hands are much better. They're still swollen, but I can form a loose fist now. Dr. Greenberg at the Hope Clinic said that I don’t appear to be allergic to the antihistamine. The stings were just apparently in a really tender area. And I came home with a prescription for an epi pen. Just in case.

Now on to the exciting news. Let’s look at two forms of aerial excellence:

     Honey Bees Fly

"I know that," you say.

But did you know . . .

People fly, too!



Eli Reiman 2011



By day Eli Reiman is a data base manager. Otherwise, he’s a fire-spinner, stilt-walker, juggler, scuba diver, photographer, and now – aerial acrobat. You've seen a lot of his photos (Yelloideas Photography) in this blog.

My bees are upside down half the time, too, but I must admit, I've never seen them in bright red . . .

BEEattitude for Day # 242:

       Blessed are those who enjoy what they do, for they shall carry blessings along with them everywhere they go.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

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.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #240 BIG Bee

Once upon a time, in the Kingdom of Hog Mountain, in the castle called Harbour House, a woman sat spinning a web of words. Her spinning wheel had been purring for quite some time, matched by the throaty purr of the gray feline on the woman’s lap.

“You are being ob-surrrrved,” said the feline.

“By whom,” asked the woman, who tended to be grammatically correct, even while spinning.

The answer was a bare breath of sound. “Look—slowly—over your right shoulder.”

The woman turned her head a fraction of an inch, and another, and another, and saw the biggest bee she’d ever known.

So she pushedback from her computer (I mean her spinning wheel), whipped out her Nokia, and snapped this photo.

Funny how big five-eighths of an inch can look, eh?

I watched this bee for a long time, and was intrigued with how her antennae followed me around as I moved my head from one side of the window to the other, as if she were trying to figure me out.

She must have been a fairly young bee, because her tummy was still very fuzzy. About as fuzzy as this photo. My camera isn't sophisticated enough to focus on the foreground.

BEEattitude for Day # 240:

       Blessed are those who spin, whether it be yarn or "yarns," for they shall enjoy magic all their lives.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #239 Fun With a Hammer

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday wielding a hammer so that I could from this:

 to this.

I ordered these unassembled honey frames from Mann Lake Ltd., along with skinny nails that were just the right size so I wouldn't split the wood. I have to admit to being somewhat nervous as I tackled the first one, but after that, it was, quite simply, fun. 

Now, whenever the bees are ready, I’ll be able to put the honey supers (the shallow boxes where they store excess honey) on top of the hives. These frames I built will give them a blueprint for where to draw the comb.

Yum, yum!

BEEattitude for Day # 239:

       Blessed are the package deliverers, for they shall spread joy, and it will rebound to them as well.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #238 Bee's Ears

Do bees have ears?

No, that’s not the start of a bee joke. I really don’t know the answer. I’ve looked in the various bee books I own, and can’t find anything.

At any rate, if they don’t have ears, they miss all that lovely buzzing,

Or do they?

When Miss Polly sat on my lap this morning, I felt rather than heard her soft purr. Maybe bees are the same. Do they feel each other as some sort of ocean wave of vibration? Do they ever imitate each other’s sounds?

I don’t know the answers. But I like asking the questions.

BEEattitude for Day # 238:

       Blessed are those who truly listen to what they’re hearing, for they shall see the light.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #237 Bees Can't Swim

I’ve been thinking about swimming lately. It started when I began to wonder if bees could swim. I’m pretty sure the answer is NO.

Every morning I take my tea kettle out to the back deck and refresh the little bird-bath bee-watering-place that you can see in this picture. As you can tell, I put lots of rocks and a few water-plants in it, so the bees could crawl out easily if they fell in. Hopefully, though, they’ll continue to perch on the edge and take teeny sips. I wouldn’t want my girls to drown.

Speaking of drowning, I’ve spent all my life thinking all the wrong things about what drowning looks like, but recently a writer colleague posted a link on the Sisters in Crime site. Do you know what the symptoms of drowning are? If a friend or a child near you begins to drown, would you recognize it?

I thought I would, but I read the article just out of curiosity.

I was absolutely wrong. I urge you to read this and/or send it to friends and family members who live near the water, whether it’s a lake, the sea, or a pool.

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

You just might save a life.

BEEattitude for Day # 237:

       Blessed are those who teach, for they shall have purpose in life.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #236 Canadians and the Olympics

I’ve had people ask me where I can possibly get my news, since I don’t have a TV set. I think that question says more about the asker than it does about me.

But I’ll answer it anyway. I read the paper, I listen to Public Radio, and I get daily links to headlines from the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

I’ve been partial to Canadian news ever since I listened to the Olympics on a Canadian radio station thirty-some-odd years ago when I lived in Vermont. While the Americans were busy bemoaning any loss of a gold medal,

                        Bronze? What a disappointment.

                        Silver? If only he’d run a little faster. What a shame.

the Canadians cheered all their competitors.

                        Bronze? Wonderful! What an accomplishment!

                        Silver? Our Canadian team worked hard for that.

Gold medals were cheered, too, of course, but the whole Canadian team seemed like winners to me—because I absorbed the enthusiasm of those Canadian announcers.

I’ve stayed true to Canadian news for all these years. Now I’m going to transfer their ideals to my bee hives:

                        Yellow Hive – Hooray!

                        White Hive – You’re doing great!

BEEattitude for Day #236:

       Blessed are those who encourage others, for they shall thereby give courage to themselves.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #235 Honey's Not the Only Sweetest Thing

Honey is gradually becoming the major source of food sweetness in my life, as I’m trying very hard to eliminate sugar as much as possible, although fudge and molasses cookies are, I must admit, hard for me to avoid. I tried making pumpkin bread (which is really more like cake than bread) using honey, but the result was dismal. Obviously I need some help on how to do the substitution.

A footnote to this: I absolutely refuse to eat anything with aspartame in it. All those addictive diet sodas are slowly killing people who think they’re doing themselves good by drinking them. Twenty years ago a chiropractor told me that aspartame helped cause brain tumors. I believe it.

Enough of my soapbox tirade.

I’m still munching away at the piece of comb honey I snatched the other day, and it is sweet, indeed! Food is not the only source of sweetness, though, as evidenced by the craze that’s running around the internet nowadays for “the most irresistibly sweet blog.”

I’ve made the list. Nanette Littlestone, who does double duty as both my editor and my friend, chose my blog as one of two that she deems “irresistibly sweet.” I’d encourage you to check her out. Whether you need an editor or simply words of inspiration, here’s the site to see:

http://nanettelittlestone.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/irresistibly-sweet/

It’s a honey of a blog!

p.s. Be sure to read her list of random facts.

BEEattitude for Day # 235:

       Blessed are those who see sweetness wherever they look, for they shall be nourished by life itself.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #234 A Dismal Hive Inspection on the Hottest Day

Yesterday’s happy story of the yellow hive turned a bit sour when I opened the white hive (white on the bottom layer and brown on the top, that is).

There was practically no comb whatsoever on the second floor. I don’t know what’s wrong with the girls in that hive. The bottom layer had capped brood and a fair number of larvae, but nobody seemed to be building any comb upstairs. Bees were walking all over the top frames, but no wax to speak of.

 I didn’t see a queen, but then again, I’m not very good yet at spotting them. There were plenty of worker bees, and nobody had built any queen cells, so I’m hoping all will be well.

I’m pretty sure I won’t get any honey at all from that hive this year. I just hope they make enough for them to survive the rest of the year.

And I wish I could speak BEEnglish.

BEEattitude for Day # 234:

       Blessed are those who choose alternative energy sources, for they shall help to save our Mother.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #233 A Happy Hive Inspection on the Hottest Day

Here’s a question for you:

How hot is a beekeeper’s suit when it’s 97 degrees outside?

Next question:

Will Frannie remember to wear a sweat band of some sort the next time she dons her suit?

Thank goodness for the trees behind my deck. If it hadn’t been for that shade, I think I would have fried myself on Wednesday afternoon. After my trip to the top bar hive on Tuesday, I decided I’d better go in and check my hives just to be sure the bees weren’t cementing the frames together with excess comb.

NOTE: Any comb that's built where the beekeeper doesn't want it is called burr comb. The same way any successful, thriving plant that a gardener doesn't want is called a weed...

There was burr comb aplenty – but I’m pretty sure I caught the problems before they got too bad. I scraped off a couple of chunks of comb that joined one frame in the yellow hive to the one beside it. So far, so good.

I checked 3 of the 5 frames, lifting each one carefully. Didn’t see the queen, but there were lots of larvae and capped brood. So I’m pretty sure she’s in there somewhere. For some reason I couldn’t pick up those two middle frames. Turns out they were joined by a massive chunk of comb right to the tops of the frames beneath them.

I had to pry up the top story and slip my hive tool in to cut the comb. Then and only then could I look at the bottom floor.

Then I went to the white hive. Another story altogether. I’ll tell you about it in tomorrow’s post.

BEEattitude for Day # 233:

       Blessed are those who scrape gently so we bees are protected, for they shall keep us calm.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #232 Another Visit to That Top Bar Hive

For a great way to end the month of May, I visited Steve Merritt’s top bar hive. You may recall that he was someone I met last October at the very first meeting of the Gwinnett Beekeepers Club, and he offered to show his relatively new top bar hive to anyone who wanted to see it.

I took him up on his offer, but it was so close to the beginning of winter, the bees weren’t doing much.

Well, Tuesday I went back and spent time helping him do a hive inspection. We both found out that there are definite disadvantages to the top bar system. Since there isn’t any wooden frame around the comb that the bees build, if they goof (or even if the day is just too hot—it was 95 degrees on Tuesday), the weight of the comb is too heavy for the wax attachment on that top bar.

Some of the comb collapsed as Steve lifted it out for the inspection. The good news is that his beautiful, fat-bodied queen most definitely was on one of the combs that stayed in one piece. She was so busy laying eggs, it’s a wonder she even knew we were there.

Steve took a lot of pictures of the bees and said he'd email them to me so I can share them with you. I think you'll enjoy them.

I’m also thinking I’m really glad I didn’t go with the top bar plan. From now on Steve is going to be shifting his focus to the Warré hives that I wrote about in an earlier blogpost. He already has built five of them.

And—the comb that fell off? I brought a chunk of it home and am planning a homemade bread and comb-honey breakfast! Yummy in the Tummy!

BEEattitude for Day # 232:

       Blessed are those who plant trees for shade, for they shall avoid excess air conditioning.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)

Day #231 Yard Bees!

Okay, folks, I’m really excited about this—

I went out to check the mail and found honey bees and bumble bees on the bright orange Aesclepias flowers (better known as Butterfly Weed). Here are some of the pics I snapped with my old Nokia phone.

This first picture shows a big old Bumble Bee near some little bitty Honey Bees, so you can see the relative sizes.

I'm amazed at how hard they all work to collect nectar. I watched them for quite a while, going from one teeny floret to another, covering them all. And I imagine tomorrow they'll be back again to pull out the newly-produced nectar.

And then there was a single honey bee on the biggest thistle flower. I suppose the flower looks huge in this photo, but it's really just under 3 inches across.

I know I didn’t plant the thistle. But I left it there beside my driveway hoping the bees would benefit. In this picture, you can see her struggling to plow her way through the thick flower. I hope the nectar she collected was worth all the effort.

BEEattitude for Day # 231:

       Blessed are those who plant flowers, for their lives shall be bright.

_______________________________ 

The teeny details:

my books:  http://www.franstewart.com

my eBooks on Amazon for Kindle

my eBooks on Smashwords (for all other formats)