Bumble bee forgages in my butterfly bush

It’s supposed to be cold this time of year, but we really haven’t even gotten a decent frost yet!

It is slim pickings for most bees except in my yard, where my golden butterfly bushes still bloom. The purple and white ones are long done, but the yellow ones still flourish. They might not be the most attractive of colors, but definitely the most vigorous and hardy of all my flowering plants. There are also still a few dandelions around, but those are mostly gone, too.

So when I think about bee pasture, these bushed look like sure winners, provided the bees can what they need from them. And so it was, a few days ago I was inspecting one of my bushes, looking at the various pollinators who were foraging when I saw her…the first honey bee I’ve seen since I started scouting several months ago!

I have no idea where she was coming from. I know of no hives within 3 miles, but there is plenty of territory for wild hives, if they are around. There was just the one bee, foraging and working the yellow flowers, while the large bummble bees were being lethergic by comparison. She didn’t hang around too long, either. Certainly not long enough for me to get my camera!

This is the big bush on the front yard

This bush is about 7 years old and each year I cut it back down to just 2-3 feet high. And every year, it grows back to over 8 feet tall and nearly as wide! I have successfully rooted and raised several cuttings from this bush as the pruning yields a lot of material and these do root fairly easily.

The bees and butterflies do love these, and this variety is called “Honey Comb” oddly enough.

I have registered for the short course from the Metro Atlanta Bee Keepers association in January, so that is something I look forward to blogging up the line.

C’est ma tournée,toutes les ruches ont recu le traitement à l’acide oxalique,j’ai profité de l’arrét de ponte et de temperature ad hoc(entre 10 et 15°),pour m’occuper de ce petit  salopard de varroa,you’re a killer villefly! me disais je en distribuant dans chaque intercadre occupée par les abeilles 5ml d’un sirop 50/50 contenant 45g d’acide oxalique,donc 625g sucre,625g d’eau et 45 g d’acide oxalique dydrate en poudre(il faut une balance de precision à 1g)donc:une ruche occupant 5 cadres:25ml,occupant 7 cadres:35ml…ect…

L’ouverture doit etre brève,pas question d’aller déranger la colonie plus de 30 secondes,les chutes de varroas devrait s’etaler sur 15 jours et on espere une efficacité de 99%(nous utilisons ce traitement depuis assez longtemps,il marche bien sauf sur colonies trop faibles qui ne s’en remettent pas,dans ce cas l’amitraze semble plus appropriée à cette saison.

J’ai eu quelques pertes dans certains ruchers qui n’avaient pas ete controlés apres le formique,difficile de faire la part des choses entre la perte de la reine suite au formique ou l’effondrement par varroa car le formique n’est pas tout a fait efficace avec 2 voir 3 passages(effondrement=pas d’abeilles mais plein de miel),en tout cas je suis sur d’une perte de 9% des reines avec 2 passages sur 75 ruches,pas tres au point !! Ca marchait un peu mieux avec le thymol,mais plein d’inconvenients egalement :’hyperventilation epuisante,pollution des cires,désertions…

J’ai aussi 10 % des ruches qui sont faibles,j’ai relogé certaines en ruchettes et là je comprends pas, les nourrissements stimulants dans l’été n’a pas suffit?reines leurrées par une importante population de vieilles abeilles?baisse de l’immunité,manque de popus,pourquoi?je ne suis pas le seul à observer les memes symptomes,quelque chose nous echappe???

je me demande si on va pas etre obligé de changer les reines tous les ans sur les ruchers sédentaires,donc bouleau en plus ce qui est le constat de beaucoup d’apiculteurs:de plus en plus difficile!

C’est donc la fin de la saison,inch allah pour l’hivernage,n’hesitez pas à laisser des commentaires,je vous repondrai(libre et gratuit,ca change de la profitation ambiante non?)

J’ai mis pas mal de liens en ligne,prenez vos marques quand ca vous plait car j’en supprime regulierement,surtout ceux qui ne sont pas actifs, à+

The honeyed voices of you Mousai nine
Lift in harmony, golden in the lilt
Of all mortal promises; smouldering
In the fires of now and forever.

Sing, sing, my honey queens! Flock together
As bees, buzzing with sensuality,
Humming music that mortal fingers are
Utterly unable to comprehend.

Your heartbeats are the silky touch of songs,
The thrum of poetry, the life of dance.
Your hair sways, without your movements, in time
To music that even you do not hear.

It is you, and you all are it. Music:
It exists in each world, whether human,
Heavenly or infernal. On this day,
For you all, we thank you for your blessings.

…but Today, a Little Less or Thanks to Matchstick The Macallan is the Sweetest Revenge.

Second chances.

Allow me to tell you a quick story of love lost and re-found in 3 scenes.

Opening scene: mid-August 2008, Edinburgh Scotland.

Enter from stage left: Me.

Arrive at the bonny hills of Edinburgh after an incredible week in Glasgow with my lovely Glaswegian friend Marcello. The Glasgow School of Art and the Glasgow Four still running through my veins like a drug. Hungry for more adventure (and maybe some steak and ale pie….and oat cakes).

Met at the train station by life-long friend, sometimes troublemaker (in the best sense of the word), and then-Canadian expat, Jenn. Together we’re unstoppable. Edinburgh Festival shenanigans are bound to ensue. Plans include a solo and LONG-AWAITED Scotch Whiskey Distillery tour. Could the world be any grander?

END SCENE

Calton Hill, in happier times

Jenn & I

Scene 2:

Time: Fast-forward through a glorious 3-day intermission of Scottish hi-jinks.  Have my game face on: time for the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh Castle and The SCOTCH WHISKEY DISTILLERY TOUR before a very tired Pamela has to head home.

Scene: Edinburgh Castle, overlooking the empire.

Enter stealthily from stage right: BEE

DAMN YOU BEE!!! I demand repayment for the epi-pen.

Long story short(ish), I accidentally folded a bee in the crook of my arm that day. The ensuing swelling, pain, and feverishness put me in a Benedryl-induced coma for the better part of three days. My arm was completely mangled and left me confined to the city.  Alcohol was out of the question.

And that’s when I lost my love: I was leaving Scotland empty-handed. The Whiskey dream had died. END. SCENE.

Or so I thought.

Fast forward a year.

Time: Late October, 2009

Scene: One restaurant at the Hazelton Hotel

Enter from street: Me

Imagine my surprise when in October I received an invitation from Matchstick Inc. to join their The Macallan Scotch Whiskey blogger tasting event. First of all, with only ONE blog post to date (I’m not complaining….thanks Matchstick!) I didn’t seem like the most likely candidate and secondly, it seemed just as unlikely that almost a year after my bee-induced disappointment, fate would so freely gift me an experience I had crossed an Ocean to find AND HAD LOST.

AMAZING.

The Macallan.

What transpired over the next few hours was fascinating and, consequently, one of the neatest experiences I’ve ever had with alcohol (Feel the power of he pun. Feel it!).  Much akin to a wine tasting, I, along with a group of equally lucky Toronto bloggers, was lead through an educational taste journey by a lovely man named Marc.

To distill all the things I learned about whiskey from this absolute delight of a man would be extremely difficult (too busy writing puns, perhaps?) but some key elements are these:

• Like wine, the wood used in a whiskey’s casket greatly contributes to it’s flavour.
• Colour, if natural like it is in the Macallan, points to the wood used in aging and not age itself.
• All good things in life have great legs. (Yes, this applies to whiskey too.)
• Everything in life is better when it’s done with love (and an 100 year sustainability plan doesn’t hurt either.)

Over the course of the evening I happily tasted the 10 year, 12 year, 15 year, 18 year and 21 year-old varieties.  I was really shocked to see how different each year was – it’s an entirely different drink/experience with each vintage: smokey, spicy, fruity, you name it.

In the end, the 18 year old scotch was my favourite (“dried fruits and ginger”), very closely followed by the 10, on the rocks (“light, with hints of fruits and heather honey.”)  A brief look at my bank statement has informed me that I will only be buying the 10 year Scotch for special occasions but after I secure a new pair of winter boots, buy it I will.

Needless to say, I came out of the event with a new-found appreciation for a complex, smooth, and luxurious drink.  But what really opened my eyes about scotch appreciation is that water or no water, provenançe or not, the love of scotch should really only come down to only one thing: taste.  And I really like it.

Epilogue:

Scene: Living room of my new apartment

Time: Way past my bedtime, throat too scratchy to sleep. Reading Wikipedia to better inform my Macallan post.

When trying to ascertain where, exactly, Speyside, Scotland is located, I happily learn that the Macallan is actually one of the ingredients in the cheaper blended scotch I was going to try in Scotland.  And while there is nothing quite like a Scottish experience© I’m left feeling I got an amazing scotch upgrade, surrounded by great friends, all in the comfort of the Hazelton Hotel.

To you, my little bee friend, wherever you are : HA!

For the past couple of years we have been interested in bees and this winter building a hive is on our to do list (it’s been there in past years and hasn’t been completed, so now that I’m putting it on the blog, maybe that will hold us accountable to actually building it this year). Below is a picture of a Kenyan top bar hive that belongs to Andy Hudak, a bee keeper and Naturalist for the city of Brunswick. We spoke to him over the summer and got hooked on this hive construction. Will post plans and pics when we get this done.

Kenyan top bar bee hive

I’m offering 20% off on my entire Etsy shop plus free shipping starting today until Friday 12am. The discount will be refunded via Paypal.

There is also a little story the my friend Mesa sent to me this morning:

A little something to put things in perspective. ..

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park , forest rangers
began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage..

One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched
statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat
sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick.
When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under
their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of
impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the
tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing
that the toxic smoke would rise.

She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her
babies. Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her
small body, the mother had remained steadfast ..because she had
been willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was lucky enough to be one of the journalists who received funding from the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund for a reporting project this year.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Kenya and Uganda. Going by road from Nairobi to Entebbe I reported on people who keep bees for a series of stories focused on food security.

I traveled alone with a backpack full of equipment: video camera, digital camera and lenses, audio recorder, plenty of tapes and leads and of course paper and pen. The aim was to come back with a multimedia project similar to a series I also did for RTE called Global Classroom.

Today, the first part of the series, The Humble Bee, went live on RTE.ie. It focuses on beekeeping as a means of improving food security on a macro and micro level. It looks at a family who keeps bees to make an income and a farmer who uses bees to improve pollination on his farm. There are videos and photos (more hopefully on the way) and an accompanying radio report, which was broadcast on RTE Radio One on World Report.

The rest of the series will look at other aspects of bee keeping in east Africa including women who keep bees, the environmental impact and the challenges some people face.

This has been a wonderful and challenging series to work on – I hope you enjoy it.

Check it out here
-B

NEW – BEES and FLOWERS – SQUARE 1 X 1 INCH – 42 UNIQUE Images for jewelry pendants and more – DIGITAL COLLAGE SHEET – Download and Print

42 UNIQUE BEES & FLOWER IMAGES: ***FEATURING MY VERY SPECIAL AUSTIN POWERS BEE (BEEHAVE) & MY QUEEN BEE, SISTER BEE, HONEY BEE, SUNFLOWERS, ROSES AND MORE***

Perfect for glass, wood, metal pendants, scrabble tile pendants, bookmarks, art cards, crafts, gift tags, magnets, jewelry, graphic designs, greeting cards, and more!

Each image is 1″ x 1″ SQUARE and is sent to you on an 8.5 x 11″ sheet. Please contact me for custom sizes.

The Resoultion is 300 dpi JPEG File for best printing. – the watermark image will not appear in your file. Print the sheet out as many times as needed.

Your Digital Collage Sheet will be e-mailed to your ETSY E-MAIL ADDRESS within 24 hours of your PayPal payment.

I had never actually cornered an animal until a week or so ago. A tiny bunny ventured into our backyard and our little kids closed in on it wondering if it actually yielded Peeps or Jelly Beans as commonly misconceived by our young audiences. As they corralled the cowering lil’ bunny I had the image of Monty Python’s Holy Grail “that’s no ordinary bunny” scene and laughed at the possibility. For a moment my boys gently pet the wild animal and experienced “the wild” as can only be experienced in city limits with the exception of traveling petting zoos and smelly pet stores. From that point in the week I have dealt with a few wild animal issues that led to the inclination to write about it in this venue since I can easily draw the relevance to this site.
“Bees your weapons are useless against them” – Tommy Boy

Honey bees in an apartment wall can be a very bad thing. I must have the greatest tenant ever, he was cordial and understanding about the weird happenstance and put up with the little noisy producers of sweetness but quite scary in groups protected class of insects. As they became trapped inside the apartment they died off in hundreds in the window that would not provide them a path to freedom. The moral of the story here, if you limit their access in and out, the thousands who are trapped in stay trapped so be careful which direction you send them. Oh, and make sure you call a bee-keeper not an exterminator for honey bees.
The smallest of animals always create the most damage.

On more than one occasion small dogs and even cats have ruined all the flooring in a few of the rentals I lord over. It is hard to imagine how something so small can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. I have the receipts to prove it. I am yet to meet a pet owner that openly admits that their pet is not house-broken and urinates like a pirate anywhere and everywhere. We often convince ourselves that domesticating something intended to be free and wild can yield positive results indoors. Moral: check up on tenant’s pets as frequently as possible. The longer you wait the more expensive the repairs become. Tenant’s, when you find yourself thinking “it’s just a [enter pet type]….it will live” that is when you should give the pet away to a caring family immediately. Please.
Raccoons don’t belong in your air ducts.

If you have open holes in your home/property cover them with paper first. If a couple of days go by without the paper being dislodged or torn away, you can surmise that there are no animals in your dwelling and you can safely cover the opening. Guess what happens when you trap an animal inside with nowhere to go? We found a raccoon with its’ arm stretched out of a wall vent like a prisoner reaching for keys. You can imagine that a trapped animal will go crazy after being stuck in walls less than 6″ wide. Lesson learned: call a animal removal specialist first, they should give you helpful hints and suggestions before they make it there and charge you. Even if they have to remove the animal it is not to expensive and well worth paying for compared to the alternatives. A good visual inspection of the property monthly will help prevent all sorts of pestilence from your walls and air conditioning.
Big dogs bark very loudly.

The best security system is not always a big dog as many people seem to think. Big dogs in backyards make perfect sense, big dogs in 1 bedroom apartments simply do not. I will let you know in on a little secret, leave the TV on instead. Most people looking to steal rob and pillage will keep on walking if they think someone is home. Sure big dogs will do the trick, but the moral of this entire entry is don’t keep animals in spaces they don’t belong. Pets will literally go crazy if they are kept in environments not suitable for their kind. Crazy big dog equals a very dangerous situation.

By Douglas Coupland, 2009.

“Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favours when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Syracuse University commencement address, May8, 1994

Zack, Julien, Samantha, Harj, and Diana are five people from different parts of the world who are stung by bees. This is a big deal because bees are believed to be extinct and the authorities are all over it, but also because video footage related to the stings goes viral on youtube, making them “The Wonka Children”.

Generation A is a very contemporary novel coming from the perspective of digital life that explores the cultures of reading and storytelling that it is supposed to be at odds with. It is lovely to read a novel that engages in a real way with technology and how it changes us instead of portraying it as the end of culture or showing a dystopian future, never mind a novel that manages to be smart, intellectual, funny, serious, and trivial all at once … a mash-up in print!

I love that Douglas Coupland writes about generations after him in a way that is fair and truly engaged (he was born in 1961). He is also an artist, screenwriter, playwright, actor, and New York Times blogger who lives in West Vancouver.

http://www.coupland.com/

The word “hexagon” means a six pointed star or something consisting of six points. The same goes with cellular blinds. The hexagonal shape for cellular blinds is just another design and shape of many others. If you want a simple description or example of what they look like just picture a bee hive. Honeycomb blinds is another name for them because of their form, they look very much like a bee hive and many people find them fascinating and attractive.

Because they are built hexagonal they are very strong and durable. We don’t know exactly where the idea of hexagonal blinds came from but the closest guess is that it came from bees. We can only suggest that bees have the intelligence to tell that a hexagonal shape provides great strength and firmness.

You can even compare them to bee hives because the main difference between them is that cells they are made of are meant to trap air instead of honey. That is what makes them perfect insulators. By trapping in their cells they are not allowing any heat nor cool air pass through them to the inside or outside of the house.

16-22 November

It’s been a week of inspiring eco-artiness and inspiration.

Eric Maddern - eco-storyteller

Monday I went to see the fabulous show by Australian storyteller, Eric Maddern, What the Bees Know: Songs and Stories to Sustain and Restore the World – an engaging and galvanising blend of story, poetry, song and environmental awareness raising. I saw a preview of this at the Ecobardic Minifest at Cae Mabon, Eric’s amazing eco-retreat centre in North Wales way back in May, but it was well worth seeing the full show, which had so much more in it. Eric’s charismatic presence filled the Chapel Arts Centre and took the small but committed audience on a 2 hour ‘bee-line’ from the malady to the remedy, honey being a traditional cure-all, and one of the rich gifts these industrious pollinators bestow upon humankind: beeswax, royal jelly, mead, various medicines, and most of all – the pollination of plants. The UK bee population dropped by 30% in 2007 – in Spain, it was 50%, and the USA is experiencing similarly sobering trends. Without these key pollinators, the cycle of life could grind to a halt (25% of the global species depend on plants pollinated by bees). Uber-brainbox Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!”…Despite the gloomy predictions, Eric’s show left the audience feeling uplifted – the creative act is affirming in itself, and is another example of the remarkable power of the human imagination, with which anything is possible – including solutions to these mounting environmental problems. Homo sapiens may be the problem, but is also the solution – and has proven over the millennia, since it first discovered fire, flint and the paintbrush back in the caves of our ancestors – that it is nothing but ingenius.

There are various good folk offering ‘plan B’, notably The Global Bee Project. We can all do our bit (eg plant bee-friendly flowers in your garden).

Eric is still touring his show – catch it next Spring, or even book it for your venue or group. Next month he’s off to Copenhagen – the place to ‘bee’ for such a committed eco-campaigner. Long may the story-honey flow from his lips.

it's been a long time coming ... Image from Home, words from Eric Maddern

On Saturday I went to the spectacular setting of Bath Abbey to see a film by Earth from the Air visionary, Yann Arthus-Bertrand called Home – deeply beautiful and moving. The Abbey was packed out with nearly a thousand people. It was very forward-thinking for the Abbey to allow this film to be shown. It was an interesting experience – the large screen in front of the altar, the haunting music drifting up into the vaults, hushed reverence, enduring the discomfort of the hard pews … a kind of surrogate religiosity pervaded the film – I would argue a genuine one, based upon awe of Creation, the miracle of this precious and fragile planet we live on. Perhaps if they had more events like this the Church would find its houses filled once more. Many are overwhelmed and despairing at the crisis facing us. Is it time for eco-churches – centres of energy descent, where folk can ‘pray’ not for their own salvation, but the salvation of the planet? The consolation of faith perhaps has its place – life without a spiritual dimension is shallow and ultimately futile – but we have to act now, before it’s too late. A good place to start is the Transition Movement, as mentioned last week. Read about the burgeoning Transition Culture here

In a week of extreme weather ravaging Britain, this seems more poignant than ever.  The flood gates are open.

…

Newly Harvested Beets Ready for Thursday

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.  When I was little, my Dad would declare, early in the day, that it ALWAYS snows on Thanksgiving, and as I recall, he was usually right.  Sometimes, after dinner–if he drank enough Mogan David with his turkey–he would load the family into our 7 year old station wagon, and take us onto the deserted snowy streets of my little home town.  He would spin us into a “360″; my mother would yell at him.  My sister and I would latch onto each other in the back seat, squealing and giggling.

Later, when I began to host my own Thanksgiving dinners, I still loved the day.  If I am to be  honest, the joy is directly tied to guilt-free eating and the absence of pressure to send cards and buy gifts under a looming deadline.

As a kid, there was no question that Thanksgiving was all about thanking God Almighty for life and the food we were stuffing into our gullets.  Today, I am more that just a little ambivalent about that premise.

Unless you are in a coma, or in the throes of drug induced euphoria, you will have noticed that life is hard.  And, as time goes on, it doesn’t get any easier.  As you age, it is certain that your wounds and bruises will mount.  Not one of us will escape a bludgeoning: the loss of a job, a limb, a home, a love.  OUCH.

It strikes me that thanking the creator for this adventure is rather akin to thanking one’s draft board.  I have reconciled the conundrum for myself, by thinking of Thanksgiving as an opportunity to thank friends and family, without whom the journey would be unendurable.

In order to fulfill our role as friends of the honey bees, we have taken to putting plates of granulated sugar out for them as a Fall treat.   Today I found a bee upside down in water that had pooled near one of the plates.  I up-righted her and put her on a log in the sun so her wings would dry.

This set me to wondering if, next Thursday, the bees might sit around some cells of stored honey, touching wings.  When it is her turn, my bee might declare, “I am thankful for the bee keeper who a-righted me when I was lying in a pool of frigid rain water.”  Who knows?

There are many versions of the Stone Soup story.  The one I am sharing is the only version I have run across personally:

During World War II a young soldier found himself isolated in a small French Town.  This particular town had little food and many of the inhabitants were starving.  It was desperate times for all.  The town’s people were reluctant to share what little they had out of fear for their own survival.  They watched the soldier carefully from curtained and shuttered windows to see what he would do.

They watched the soldier as he rummaged through the piles of discarded items that littered the streets.  Many people had left with what they could carry, leaving some things behind to lighten their loads.  He hunted for several hours before he returned to the fire he had built outside an abandoned building.  In his hand he carried an old dented soup pot, an old rusty fire grate, and a large kitchen spoon.  He had found a small trickle of water spilling from a broken spigot that used to provide clear spring water to the  the town square fountain.   He carried the pot to the fountain and  went about filling the old pot with the fresh spring water.    He then carried it back to his fire where he had placed, over the fire,  the metal grate that he had also found while foraging.  Then the town’s people saw him search the ruins until he found a stone, which he placed in the pot.  The soldier then sat down and waited patiently.

Soon the mayor of the town strolled by.  “What are you doing there?” he asked the soldier.

“I am making stone soup,” was the soldier’s reply.  The mayor rubbed his chin and proceeded to walk to his home that was just down the street.

The grocery store owner also stopped by to see what the soldier was doing.  “What are you cooking there?” the store keeper asked.

“I am making stone soup,” was the soldier’s reply.  The store keeper also continued to walk to his grocery store that was now barren of food.

Throughout the day many of the town’s people strolled by asking of the soldier.  Suddenly the mayor arrived a carrots in his hand.  “Can you use this carrot in your stone soup?” the mayor inquired.  “It isn’t much but you can have it.”

“Thank you,” the soldier said as he took out his pocket knife, cut up the carrot and through the pieces into the pot with a plop.  The mayor turned to the north toward where his office was.

Again, the store keeper arrived bearing two potatoes that he had scavanged from his ravished stores from his grocery. “I have these two potatoes.  Can you use them in your stone soup?”

“Why, yes I can.  Thank you!” he said as he again pulled out his pocket knife and cut up the potatoes into small pieces and threw them into the steaming pot with a plop.  The soldier sat back and waited patiently.

All that day people from the town would walk by offering a small amount of what they had to the soldier for his stone soup.  By the end of the day the smell drifted all through the town.  The town’s people gathered at the soldier’s fire and watched the soup boil.  When the soup was ready the soldier stood and addressed the crowd.  “All of you are welcome to share this pot of soup with me.”

That day the entire town was fed by that one pot of soup.  It was the first hot meal they had had in a very long time.  Alone, they had not even enough to feed themselves, but together, they were able to feed an entire village.

Now, this is not a story of charity but of helping each other.  Those who had a little shared it with the whole.  Those who didn’t have shared the reward.  I am sure that those who had not given went back to their homes and found things to share with the town.  I am sure that there were many other days of stone soup.  Those who did not have to give, gave of their time.  They hunted for more pots, started fires, gathered firewood, contacted people to help, and did what they could to contribute.  There was no charity here, but people working together to help each other.

Look around you.  Surly there are people, families, neighborhoods that can use your skills, expertise, or labor to improve their living standard just a bit.  Is there an abandoned building that can be raised and a park created in its place?  Is there a neighborhood watch group organizing in your neighborhood?  Why not join?  Is there a senior citizen that could use a plate of cookies and a bit of conversation?  Is there a young mother that could use a day just for herself?  Why not offer to watch her children for a day so she can relax and enjoy what ever her heart’s desire? And, while you are at it, why not share your parenting and child rearing skills with her.  Perhaps she doesn’t have anyone to mentor her.  Perhaps she doesn’t have someone she can talk to when she is stressed or worried.  Perhaps she needs your gentle wisdom to teach her the mothering skills she is lacking.  These are small things that can make a big difference

Are there parents who need a car pool?  Is there a school bus stop that needs an adult to watch the children until they are on the bus or to walk them home?  Is there an elderly neighbor who could benefit from a handy man, or is there  a neighbor child who needs a little extra money for doing small things around your home?

We are not islands.  What we do or not do affects others.  It’s the ripple effect.  Everything you do or don’t do sends out energy into the cosmos and in turn, it comes back to you.  This is not about charity.  This is about raising up the quality of life for yourself and others.  One hour a day once each week or every two weeks, is a small sacrifice to make someone else’s life better while  helping yourself in the process.  Not only are you raising up your neighborhood one person at a time, but you are teaching your children and other neighborhood children to give rather than to be takers.

You could organize an after school program where those who need to teach can come and provide the children with a varied insight into their lives and the lives of others.  Or, you could simply open your home to those children who may be latch key kids.  It used to be that multiple generations lived under one roof and the children benefited from the wise counsel of their elders.  Today, seniors are looked upon as a burden and as senile, having no value.  An after school program where those elders can share their vast knowledge and experience and perhaps change the views of their own generation toward young people as well as change the views of young people towards seniors, would be a benefit to any community.  It also gives the elders a sense of being needed and it provides the children with someone to look up to…surrogate grandparents.

It doesn’t take much to send a plate of cookies over to the widow next door.  It doesn’t take much to invite a latch key kid over for an after school snack with your own children.  Make sure you talk to the parents first, of course.  Nothing should be done without their knowledge and involvement.  Perhaps they can give a bit of their time to help as well.  Who knows, it takes a village to raise a child, and it only takes one person to change their neighborhood’s vision.  Why not start a neighborhood vision committee and hold a neighborhood barbeque or pot luck and discuss those things that your neighbors need.  You might be surprised at what you discover.

Now, on the same subject, I just received “The Most Important Gift Catalog in The World”.  It is called Heifer.   The Heifer International project was established to help people and families move toward self-reliance.  Through this organization if you give just $500.00 a heifer will be given  to a family in third world countries, or you can share the gift by giving $50.00 with others who can’t afford the entire cost. For $1,000.00  a family will receive a Milk Menagerie of four milk producing animals such as one heifer, two goats, and a water buffalo.  Or you can share the expense by giving just $100.00.  The gift of a goat is only $120.00 or $10.00 to share the gift expense.  A pig will cost you $120.00 or $10.00 to share the gift expense.  A sheep will cost you $120.00 or just $10.00 to share the gift expense.  You can give a Knitting Basket gift which includes 4 wool producing animals and the cost is only $500.00 or $50.00 to share the gift expense.    You can give a trio of rabbits for $60.00 or $10.00 to share the gift expense.  You can donate a flock of chicks for just $20.00.  You can even give the gift of bees for just $30.00.  If bees aren’t your bag, how about $150.00 for the gift of a Llama or $20.00 to share the gift expense.  Oh, and then there is the water buffalo.  $250.00 will give the gift of a water buffalo or $25.00 to share the expense.  There are also camels, oxen, donkeys, ducks, guinea pigs, and geese.  You can give the gift of tree seedlings as well as grass seeds so that the animals can be fed.  All this comes with training and instruction for the happy recipients.  So, this year, even though times are tough for us all, why not put the energy of generosity out into the universe so that it can come back to you.

“If you give a man a meal he can feed himself for one day.  If you teach him how to garden, he can feed himself for a year.  The Heifer program is not charity.  It is giving those in need a helping hand up so that they can in turn, give back to their families and their communities.  If we rid the world of hunger, we will rid the world of wars and we teach people to be self-reliant.

So go to:  www.heifer.org/gift

Chris

An adventure in Beekeeping, we are two beginner Beekeeping located in the Waitakere Hills in Auckland, New Zealand. Follow us to see how our Beekeeping is going. Feel free to comment on our posts.

Olivares queens produced a golden bee

Fully suited last weekend, I went with Mark as he fed the bees out at Elm Creek. He showed me one of the hives because he knew I would want to see some more of the beautiful golden bees that are coming along from the Olivares queens he recently put in the hives out there. They’re so pretty! You can really see the difference between their coloring and the other bees.

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

Okay, so lately I have been a reading fiend. (Probably one of the main reasons why I haven’t posted in a bit.) I’ve been spending more time reading than any other thing (except going to work, bah.) My house is laid out randomly, but with bookshelves everywhere. Those shelves hold the key to my entertainment — tons and tons of books I’ve been storing away like a pack rat, but haven’t read yet.

The other day, I went perusing through my bookshelves and came across a little book called The Secret Life of Bees. It’s written by Sue Monk Kidd, an author that I had heard much about, but had never experience for myself. Published a little over two years ago, I have found the book to be a treasure in my library.

It’s about a young girl named Lily Owens, who is coping with the fact that she may or may not have accidentally shot her own mother when she was a toddler. Her father is abusive, and offers few answers to the mysteries that circle around her mother’s death. But still, she spends her days daydreaming about what her mother was like and the short-lived relationship they once shared.

The book is set during the Civil Rights movement. Lily’s black housekeeper, Rosaleen, tries to register to vote and ends up being locked away in prison, not to mention beaten by prejudice townspeople. So Lily busts Rosaleen out of jail and they both flee to a bee farm and live with a group of beekeeper sisters. The farm, however, draws Lily to it by the only clue her mother left behind: a small picture of a black Mary with the town of the bee farm written on the back of it.

Throughout the story, she tries to piece together things about her mother and learn how to care for bees as well. In the end, she finds out that her mother had spent time on the very same farm with the very same sisters. It is up to her to decide how to process all the information she finds about her mother.

I think Sue Monk Kidd’s writing style is one of the most eloquent and beautiful I have ever read. It gives you just enough, reels you out, then pulls you back in stronger than before. Her attention to small details makes it special and her words fill you up with a cozy feeling inside. This book is also great commentary on racial struggles during the Civil Rights movement. This is a great book.

A little while ago, I set up a feeding station for my bees, about 200 meters from the Smallholding. The recent mild weather has meant that the bees have been more active than normal, although the winds of the past few days has restricted their flying. Today was much more calm, and the bees took full advantage, taking in water, feeding on Mahonia, bringing in small quantities of Ivy pollen, and descending en masse onto the feeders. Here are some pictures of them, taken today. The insulating sleeve is sitting in the syrup to help prevent bees falling into the syrup and drowning.

As well as providing food for the bees, the syrup mix contains an essential oil mix, which I am using for varroa treatment, instead of conventional chemicals. I came across a couple of web articles describing their use, and noticed that Apiguard is just synthetic Thyme Oil, Api Life Var is a mixture of essential oils, and so is Vita Feed Green. All are much more expensive than using the essential oils themselves. There are links to these articles in one of my earlier posts, Hectic, Honey and Happy,  which you can find by following the link below.

LINK

The feeders are one gallon poultry water containers, and are hung up in a tree, a short distance form the Smallholding. If they were too close, it would probably lead to robbing of the weaker hives, as the returning foragers would not be able to give a bearing and distance to the new food source, only a message that it is close to the hive, leaving new foragers to investigate the immediate vicinity of the hive, including other hives.

In the pictures you can see that there are a few other insects taking advantage of the free food source. What the pictures do not convey is the noise, and level of activity. There were bees all around me as I moved in to get some close ups. It’s my 50th Birthday next month, and I’m hoping that a camera with a better zoom might be on it’s way, so that I can get better pictures. Watching the bees leaving the feeders, all of them were heading back towards my hives. There are two other beekeepers close by, but their bees don’t appear to have found the free food source.

Bees on Feeder2

More bees on Feeder

Yet more bees on Feeder

Take Care

Deano

Mary Beth: Winter is coming, I think, and even though the weather continues to be unusually warm for this time of year, I’ve been getting the bees ready.

So, what about the bees? Every time I tell someone that Ray and I are moving back to Colorado (Ch, Ch, Changes), I hear this question. I’ll say, “We’re leaving.” and then, wait for it, wait for it…a look of dismay and “What about the bees?!” Of course it’s logical, but I’ve been a little surprised and amused that the fate of my bees worries them. On the other hand it’s nice that my friends and readers have become so engrossed in this story that one of their first thoughts is for the bees.

So here is the answer.

Out of the three hives that I ended up with after the swarm season, the Top Bar Hive is the only one that survived.

The Hippie Shack

For some reason the other two lost their queens after they swarmed (read about it here and here) and I ended up shaking out the remaining bees in front of the TBH in hopes that they would be accepted into the hive. Losing the Blue and Green hives made me very sad — I was surprised by how much I’ve come to love my bees.

As for the Hippie Shack (named in honor of the laid-back nature of these bees), I checked it recently and it didn’t have as much honey as I thought it should. I think the hive was being robbed. I put an entrance reducer in to make the the hole smaller to give the guard bees less area to defend. Now, even with the warm weather prolonging the season, I’m worried that they won’t have time to store enough food to make it through the winter.

Since Ray and I decided to leave after the holidays, I’ve been trying to figure out how to leave the bees with enough food. I researched fondant ‘bee candy’ and it seemed like a good solution, so I made a frame to hold it and placed that in the hive.

This small frame holds 5 pounds of sugar fondant!

Another good thing about the bee candy is it won’t cause the moisture problems inside the hive that the sugar syrup did in the early spring. I placed the fondant between the false back and the last comb hoping it wouldn’t attract any more robber bees.

I hope the warm weather will last long enough to let them build up their supplies. Every day they’ve been coming in with a lot of pollen, which is a very good thing.

Dandelions and the last of the aster are blooming, so I think this is where they are getting the bright orange pollen.

Another sign that the bees are preparing for winter is each day a few more drones have been getting kicked out of the hive. I watched this play out one day — those girls are ruthless!

Poor drone!

One poor male was pulled by his leg and tossed out like yesterday’s paper. It’s a cruel, cruel world my friends, but there is not enough to go around in winter for lazy freeloaders.

I moved the hive from it’s original spot so it will get maximum sun exposure all winter. This should allow the bees to break cluster on sunny winter days.

I also wrapped the hive to give it a little more insulation and to keep the wind out. Now it’s up to the bees. Other than a few more feedings before we leave for Colorado, my girls are on their own until March.

You may wonder why I haven’t given the hive away. I did consider moving the hive to my friend’s property, but I was afraid if I moved it up the steep, bumpy road to my friend’s house, a comb or two might break off ruining any chance of the bees’ survival. So I decided to leave them where they are on my family’s property. I’ll fly back east in the spring for a visit and check on the bees and I’ve arranged for my beekeeper friends to check on them now and then. Fortunately the TBH needs little maintenance and the bees will take care of themselves.

Becoming a beekeeper has been a wonderful journey. Learning about honeybees opened up new worlds for me, not just the world of honeybees in my garden, but the important roles of all pollinators and how critical every last one of them is. It’s led me to examine the negative impact we’ve all had on our environment. I’ve been reading about the decline of the honeybee from Colony Collapse Disorder — just one of many examples of our carelessness towards our environment. But the good thing is it’s made me more aware of what I’ve been doing.

So, with that new-found awareness, I try to do my part to help by adding native plants to the existing flower gardens. And I’ve decided that I will delay mowing the outer fields until after the first frost to allow time for the last of the butterflies to emerge from their cocoons and to let the wildflowers reseed themselves for next year.

Of course, at the center of it all is the honeybee, the incredible little powerhouse.  If you have not yet read any books on honeybees, you should. Some of the things you learn will astound you.

It’s been a great year even with the loss of two hives and no honey to harvest. And next spring I will have a hive in Colorado with even more challenges — bears, skunks and who knows what else, but I have a plan!

• Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees
  “This publication discusses using solitary or native bees as pollinators. Some of the larger groups of bees are discussed, including alkali bees, leafcutter bees, alfalfa leafcutter bees, bumblebees, sweat bees, squash bees, digger bees, orchard mason bees, shaggy fuzzyfoot bees, and hornfaced bees. Information is also presented on how to attract and conserve populations of wild bees for pollination purposes. There is also a list of suppliers of native bees and bee equipment.”
  (tags: gardening sustainability farming bees alternative pollinators pollination insects natives beneficialinsects entomology)
• Colony collapse disorder – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Colony collapse disorder (CCD) or sometimes honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS)[1] is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear.
  (tags: bees wikipedia entomology ecology biology science sustainability insects pollinators pollination disease beneficialinsects)
• USDA-ARS Bee Labs – eXtension
  The USDA-ARS sponsors five bee research labs at:
  Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  Beltsville, Maryland
  Logan, Utah
  Tucsan, Arizona.
  Weslaco, Texas
  Each lab is listed below with its home-page, mission, and a link to associated research summaries.
  (tags: usda bees insects beneficialinsects research entomology pollinators pollinations)
• Conserving Pollinators: A Primer for Gardeners – eXtension
  Bees and other pollinators are important to our environment, providing essential services for the production of more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species. ,,,
  But, pollinators are in trouble.
  (tags: gardening gardens bees pollination pollinators fruit horticulture entomology)