"There is no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves." Frank Herbert
Most of us could use more balance in our lives. Life is not without a little roughness. The roughness could be described as a roller coaster or riding the waves. I do not want to think of the waves like Fire Island waves as in the last two weeks because they have been treacherous. But life can be balanced. Find the serenity and peace in your life. When do you find it the most peace and serenity? In order to feel serene we all must go through the process.
The process of your progress may be slow or fast. I favor a slow process of the progress I am making to better understand what I have learned. Someone told me early in my recovery, "I wish you a slow recovery." At first I was outraged and angered that someone would wish me a slow recovery. In retrospect I understand and I am delighted that I did have a slow recovery. It allowed me to focus on my own wellness. The understanding of my own well-being has allowed me to mature. It has allowed me to be connected to the world. It allows me to be peaceful and serene even among my
The process of your progress may be slow or fast. I favor a slow process of the progress I am making to better understand what I have learned. Someone told me early in my recovery, "I wish you a slow recovery." At first I was outraged and angered that someone would wish me a slow recovery. In retrospect I understand and I am delighted that I did have a slow recovery. It allowed me to focus on my own wellness. The understanding of my own well-being has allowed me to mature. It has allowed me to be connected to the world. It allows me to be peaceful and serene even among my
BEES...
I mind my own 'bees-ness. 'This means I 'bee-have.' The thrill of handling our bees is beyond reproach. Bees have fascinated me since I read a Scientific American article when I was about 12 or 13 yrs old. I even wrote a paper on bees while at Mark Twain Middle School. Although I read many books, I have been concentrating lately on Bee books. I have just finished Hive Management by Richard Bonney. I got my bees late this year, but according to this beekeeper's guide, I should begin the year with a late winter hive inspection and end it by 'putting the bees to bed'. This year I will at least get my honey bees to sleep sometime in Autumn.
I enjoyed what I read about his visual inspection of the overall well-being of the hive. I want to be the perfect beekeeper, but I do know that is impossible. Mr. Bonney was a state apiary instructor as well as a beekeeper so as I am reading I get two perspectives on being a beekeeper.
I do not think my honeybees will swarm this season, but you never know.
It is not necessary to open the hive every weekend I am in Fire Island. This weekend, Todd, Rick and I did not find the queen. At first I was alarmed but we saw larvae in the honey comb cells. This was reassuring that our queen must have taken flight to get 'some drone-queen action'.
The poor drone dies after giving her his sperm. What a sacrifice! Can you imagine a human male dying every time he gives his sperm to his beloved female? Let's not even entertain the same sex male relationship exchange!
I added some wild flower honey to the top super to help my little girl workers with feeding and nurturing the larvae and young. This weekend I will open only the top to see if the honey jar is empty. I will not open the whole hive as we did in the above photos. This weekend will only be external inspection.
I will observe the worker guards in the front of the hive. I changed the entrance to a smaller one as I want to protect my 'girls' from predators. If the hive is flourishing and there is intense nectar flow, there will be less guarding according to Bonney. I haven't seen foraging workers in my garden and on my flowers but my neighbors say have no fear as honey bees are foraging in their gardens. Yeah! I would love to put a radio device on one of the forager workers and follow them by satellite.
Even some bees can become loafers or couch/hive potatoes. I have learned that when the hive entrance has a number of those loafers it can indicate many things. First the weather could be so hot that some do not want to take flight. This has been a problem and will be this weekend as well. The other reason is no place to store honey. In our case, that cannot be true as there were empty frames. I even have read that bees can enter a different hive after foraging, but this would be highly unlikely since as far as I know, we have the only bee hive.
I am sure this happens on large bee farms. That lonely bee would be regarded as a trespasser or interloper and thrown out.
I am in awe of this complex bee society. So simple yet so complex. Can humans learn from bees?
Until tomorrow...
Photograph credit: Rick Byrd
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