Head full of doubt

Are you enjoying the warm, balmy weather?

Getting out? Sampling the cuisine?

Against my better judgement I put out more protein. I can’t help it. I just love watching the girls.

And they love the snack. Not to mention, the rare opportunity to get out in January. They’ll even chase that protein in the rain.

I’ve got real doubts as to whether this is a good idea. It’s definitely not natural. We’re still over a month away from maple pollen. I’m hoping we don’t end up with massive brood nests in March. We’ll see. Am I creating an epic year for varroa? Hope not.

So many things, you just deal with it as it comes… and try to learn.

We’re trying to stay optimistic.

And that’s why we built about a hundred new lids this week. 2020 is going to be an expansion year. Or, at the very least, we’ll hopefully get back up in the 700’s.

Beauties, aren’t they?

Louis and Bill, a couple bee clubbers helped free me of some old non-migratory junk.

Speaking of which… I’ve still got plenty of this stuff, for you interested beekeepers. Telescoping lids, inner covers, and bottom boards. Let me know if you want to take some of it off my hands.

And speaking of bee clubbers, I walked out of the meeting the other night (after a great queen rearing talk by Dan Williams) and Jim North caught me. He couldn’t wait to share the good news. Said that they had developed a technology to artificially pollinate almonds. Said that it not only did a better job than honey bees, it was going to be tested in California this year.

What??

If you’ve been following this blog longer than three weeks, you know we now have some skin in the almond game. I was sorta hoping to make this big gamble work out in the coming years.

Hmmm….

And this news from Jim came just after a full day of mounting doubts…. also concerning bees and almonds. No less than four people (at least one, a blog reader) felt compelled to share a dystopian article by The Guardian.

What are you guys trying to do to me?! You already know I’ve got more than a few insecurities. I think you’re feeding off this bad news… and what’s more, I think you’re enjoying it. No more of this crap! Please! I already had a head full of doubt.

So sticking to my resolution this week, walking the roads, I really got thinking about all this. Is it worth it? The risk, I mean? Sure seems like some heavy downsides to the whole thing. At one point, an Avett Brothers song came through my ear buds. And man, that just seemed to fit the moment.

I was moved. It entirely changed my mood. Then I went to You Tube and watched the video. That was pretty cool too.

It’s only beekeeping. It’s only life. What’s the worst that could happen?