Beekeeping
Beekeeping 101: Swarm Catching, Mid Life Crises and Learning Something New
A shining rippling wing clad teardrop of living things hangs from the crook of a fruit tree. A swarm. It is inches from my face.
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The Beekeeping Diaries: #1 Learning to Keep Bees
There is something wonderful in working with something so different and alien that any of the ordinary oddities of character get lost in the massive gap. It will, I think, be the same with bees.
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Honeybees, failing hives and why we farm holistically for bees
We have two hives remaining One colony gone. Dead. A thin drift of bees on the hive floor. Late to swarm, and light on bees. A small swarm. It was cold and wet before they swarmed.
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Bees at last! Bees at last! Thank the Swarms I’ve bees at last!
I had said in a past post that bees were a constructive kind of mid life crisis for me. Something of me. For me. Totally new. Beyond my comfort zone and outside my experience. A challenge to prove I am still equal to things. But a good one. A positive one. One with concrete, meaningful […]
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Waiting for a Swarm: What bees mean to me
I’m waiting for a swarm of bees. If it happens, it will be quick. A kind of inverse tornado calmly and efficiently funneling themselves down, by the thousand, and in to the hive entrance. Up to twenty thousand of them. And it is done. The colony has reproduced. Swarms begin when the workers in an […]
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Building Bee Hives and Mid Life Crises
This is how I begin with bees. I make hives. To catch wild swarms. And to feel like I am not old. I build top bar hives. They mirror the kind of tree trunks bees evolved to like. Thick walls. Dark. Secure. Dry. It feels good to work with my hands on this. Simple carpentry. […]
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