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Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher, must have known something of the lot of the beekeeper: Plura sunt quae nos terrent quam quae premunt, et saepius opinione quam re laboramus. What a relief! We go through this every apres-swarming season: worry then relief. They never let us down, always demonstrating their resilience. Ain’t nature grand? Of course, … Continue reading
Last week was the most beautiful spring weather, and like every other beekeeper our thoughts turned to the first inspection. What with the death of one of our two hives and other beekeepers reporting not only swarm preparation but also actual swarms, we approached our garage bees with some trepidation. They had been giving off … Continue reading
It wasn’t all bad news from the bees’ perspective on that Saturday. The first swarm, which had been lucky enough to transfer to a nice, comfy nuc a few weeks back, was transferred to even more spacious accommodation – a brood box. Before that could happen (and while the other bees were deciding on a … Continue reading
primum favos construunt, ceram fingunt, hoc est domos cellasque faciunt, dein subolem, postea mella,ceram ex floribus, melliginem e lacrimis arborum quae glutinum pariunt, salicis, ulmi, harundinis suco, cummi, resina. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, Ed. Who are we to stand in the way of artistes? I mean, I thought we had … Continue reading
When I said no more about bees for a bit on Friday I lied. Because, of course, they do seem to like to go from crisis to crisis to get my attention. I am currently reading the Hunger Games in anticipation of a visit from my neice. We did hive inspections on June 5th and little … Continue reading
Because I wouldn’t put it past them. It’s usual for them to freak me out by doing something that looks distinctly bad. For instance, we had a hard frost around the beginning of April with the resulting scene above on the flight deck of the swarm hive the next morning. Moreover, when the sun shines and … Continue reading
My Latin Notebook 