So Far So Good
Jayne Barnes
-Posted by Isaac
How's that resolution coming?
Not so well? Well maybe you need to feed it! This awesome display greets you as you walk in the Whole Foods entrance at Easton. Lemons and honey? Strange sales pitch, but I think it has something to do with detoxing into the New Year. Maybe?? Whatever they're pitching, it's obvious that Whole Foods has the same resolution as us-- to sell as much local honey as possible.
Well, I'm now full swing into my winter resolution of perfect beekeeping. And so far, so good. We're at a whopping 0% loss, having now popped over 500 lids.
Not joking! Zero dead hives! (But I am joking about 0% loss being a resolution. That's about as likely as the NFL calling.)
This week I made it around to most of the yards. Checking up, feeding when needed. Most hives look like the above picture. No bees visible, a nibbled patty, all quiet, and all is well.
A few are hungry monsters.
And some are in between. Needing fed on top, but still plenty of honey on the sides.
Most of these in-betweeners were still pretty heavy, having several inches of honey between the cluster and the sugar patty. Why the bees are sitting so high, I don't know. Considering the frigid temps.
But then, bees laugh at cold. Maybe wind and draftiness and moisture will get them, but cold, that's nothing. Even single digits. Just think about it. Wouldn't you stay warm if you had 10,000 bodies crammed around you?
I love bee work in the winter. (Especially with no dead-outs!) It's calm, it's quiet, it's relaxing. You just take your time, you enjoy the stillness. You may even recite some Robert Frost, if you know any. Hehe. Whose woods these are I think I know...
And the work is quick. All you're really doing is checking up. Popping a lid, maybe throwing a patty on. You can cover hundreds of hives in a day. Especially with your weekend help.
Of course sometimes there are interruptions. Every job entails some form of unwanted interference. Even beekeeping. Here we have a freeloader.
Maybe it's my E.O.G. flaring up again, but this generation really makes my blood boil! When I see the nonchalance of these entitled slackers coming right up and and asking for a handout, like sugar patties grow on trees...
This is what's wrong with the country!
What a bum!