" The most precious gift we can give those closest to us is HONESTY."
At this point in my life-- here it is. Honesty and trust are important. I am honest. If I cannot be honest, what is the point to life. I must be honest with myself at all times, in order to be honest with those around me that I love.
How do we treat infections ? Most physicians use antibiotics to treat infections. There are many herbal antibiotics. I feel achy so I am drinking a cup of Viral Tea from Longevity Nutritionals. (www.longevitynutritionals.com ) The tea contains Yarrow, Horehound, Goldenseal and Elderberry.
I add a little of our own wild flower honey from the Fire Island beehives.
Honeybees also get infections. Most of the infections are from the varroa mites. Sometimes a hive must be treated chemically to kill the mites. There are many factors than can be toxic to honeybee hives.
There was a recent study of honeybee hives near highways in Central Croatia. Scientists found that lead levels increased from 2009 to 2011. Since there are many honey bee hives near highways there is a possible lead contamination of these hives.
While traveling in Romania we did explore honeybee hives. Most of the hives are far away from any highway . Actually most of the hives we visited were far within the rural villages of the mountains.
Other factors that have been studied to affect honeybees are the agricultural sprays. It has been found that it is likely that these sprays impair honey bee learning . Rick and I have read and studied honeybees and find their learning skills to be fascinating.
One of the most interesting studies involve propolis. Since this is a very sticky substance and difficult to work with it has been opted that most beekeepers not use this substance. It sounded like good advice. However it has been studied that when honeybees are infected with fungi, the honeybees respond in a very clever way. The honeybees respond by collecting and lining their hives with propolis. This is a natural defense It was studied that when bee larvae were purposely infected with bacteria or fungi, there was an increase by 45% percent ore resin ( propolis) to line their hives.
Last weekend we moved our honeybees to a friends home in Fire Island. Yes bees are clever even with their flight patterns from their hive. So, we moved one hive on Saturday at 2pm. We noticed that some of the bees as we knew would be already foraging late in the season. Those honeybees outside the hive came back to the exact old home and not the new one. So, on Sunday feeling sad for our 'girls' we sealed the hive the night before. We got up earlier and moved the hive with help from Islanders. Both hives were doing well as our friend , Bud , has numerous Montauk Daisies in his yard. However by the time we got from back to the their old 'hive' spot, there were bees there. How ? Those that started to forage from the new hive location did not change their flight patterns and came back to the old spot of the hive and not the new one.
This could be determental ...but we will see. Some Islanders have checked and do not see honeybees in the old neighborhood. That is good- ' our girls' might have changed their flight patterns. Also, we both got stunbg last weekend. Rick got more stings than I. Thanks to a photograph from his brother , Michael- you get to see a sting close -up
Now this is clever ! Sometimes I do not think we as humans are as clever as the honeybees
We would have never moved our 'girls' but unfortunately there are some indivdiuals who do not understand bees and would not let us keep our bees in their old area until next year. I can only say this --- Bless their hearts
Until tomorrow...
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