Category: Uncategorized
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Listen
The apiary looks lonely, there’s no leaves on the trees, no flowers in the grass or on the bushes, there’s a chill in the air. The hive lies quiet and lonely and there’s no sign of life. Leaning down I pin my ear to the side of the beehive and I hear a faint woosh…
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Double, double, toil and trouble
It’s Halloween and it seems apt that I find myself hovering over a cauldron with wooden frames sticking out over the edge of the bubbling mix of hot water, soda crystals, foaming melted wax, propolis and bee detritus. I am sure medieval witches were beekeepers as the charming of bees must have seemed as mystical…
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Framed
My mind drifts as I reach for the next frame that needs to be cleaned. This one was an old brood frame and has hard black comb. Each of the 4,500 individual cells on each side of this Langstroth brood frame is a polished dark brown or near black colour. In the hive it would…
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Batten down the hatches
Anyone with any sense would be snuggling up on a couch in front of an open fire, not that there are too many of these anymore in the days of smokeless fuel, wood burning stoves and underfloor heating. The green mesh was nearly ripped out of my hands, flapping like a topsail in the gale…
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Close encounters of the third kind
Druids huddle in a circle around a cauldron with smoke bellowing. The white hooded garb is emitting a luminescent glow… but something’s not quite right, it’s a bright sunny day. It’s not a midnight coven. This feels like a surreal dream, but I too am clad in a brand-new gleaming, white bee suit and join…
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Destructor!
It’s raining…again. My bees must be going spare. They can’t fly out and forage. Bees hate damp. Dampness in the hive will kill sooner than cold. At least my hives have open mesh floors (OMF) which I think provide good ventilation. The bees couldn’t care less about what I think though. They would rather pick…
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Bees, bees and wasps
You can’t just shoo away bees. Waving your arms around a bee (let along hundreds of bees) is the last thing you should do. As for wasps.. they get kicked out of the nest at this time of year and are cranky…very cranky. Keep away” They gravitate towards surgery substances, so you’ll find them where…
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Big Brown Box
The excitement of a big cardboard box as a child and the endless possibilities were much better than the contents. A train. A house. A tunnel. A fort. A big cardboard box could become all that and more. Colouring markers (aka sharpies) or a few crayons and a scissors (preferably without supervision) and I would…
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Ouch!
“Bee stings don’t bother me.” My jaw dropped in disbelief. These words had come out of my own mouth! I was a little impressed with myself, finally perhaps, I am a true beekeeper. I’ve seen so many of the experienced beekeepers brush off stings as a mere nuisance, for this moment I felt one of…
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Immersion
The adult in me had flown out the window out to the large lawn littered with beehives. Real hives with real bees. I watched a druid-like cluster around one hive as a demonstration is taking place. My attention is dragged back “Is this your first time?” said a stranger in the queue to register. I…