OK , I am going to come right out and admit it : A vainglorious part of the reason I want to write about bees was that I could employ that headline . But beyond that , I ’ve been fascinated by them for so long , I reckon it might be prison term to exploreraising some beesof my own . Visions of lovely jars of love with those lilliputian material covers and handcrafted beeswax candles flickering on the chimneypiece dance in my head . Another step toward decease to the full off - gridiron !
I ’ve dumbfound friends withhives , and there ’s a substantial beekeeping organization here in the county , so there are good resources close at hand . I acknowledge enough to have sex there was a lot Ididn’tknow , like how to keep the hive good and how not to unintentionally recruit aswarmof orca bees that would take over the neighborhood … and then the domain . So , I wandered into a local educational meeting about beekeeping , and that ’s where I got daunted . I mean , severely daunted .
I always had the vague idea that you just set up a sort of boxwood and stuff it full of bees and then leave it there and desire that you did n’t get stung , and after a while , honey would stream out into some sort of container , and I could put some on my toast . Turns out , there ’s a little more to it than that .
There ’s a whole science , for exercise , just about where to put the beehive , involving a circle more than simply finding a place far enough aside so that you and your bees each have lot of personal space . They need sun , but not too much ; they need a nearby water source , and a shelterbelt , and to be protected from rain and predators . Apparently , skunks are a special yield . Then there ’s hive beetles andcolony collapse disorderand Varroa tinge , which are like bee vampires — I ca n’t stop imagining that they wear diminutive opprobrious capes . Then there ’s supers and smoking car and cartridge extractor and skeps . It ’s enough to make you just need to cannonball along right over to the local grocery , grease one’s palms a jar of honey and forget the whole matter .
I may be scare away , but I ’m not BEEten ( sorry , could n’t refuse ) , so I am going to dig in and learn bee stuff — one of my goals for next year . Meanwhile , I ’m casting about for an experienced beekeeper ( aka “ beek ” ) who is looking for new beehive fix . Without a mentor on paw , I ’m worried about contributing to the bee population decline by misconduct a beehive . But with a beek at my side , and the interwebs at my beck and call , I ’ll be ready to relieve into my own beekeeping operation . If it is meant to bee , it ’s meant to bee .
I ca n’t stop .
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