Busy Busy.

A little snippet for you. This is last Tuesday; May 14th. It was a beautiful day: gently warm and rarely a cloud to be seen, which equates to beautiful bee weather. Here you can see them quite contently working. 

the beginning of the bees. part 2.

So, the hives are safely at the beehive locale.  Because we decided to have the hives in the far corner of the property, I had to carry the nucs along with extra frames and tools across the large yard (just beginning to turn that vibrant, lush, summer green). 

The next important step is to light a smoker. This has always been my weakest link; when I was younger, I was afraid of fire, and now I struggle to kindle the fire long enough to keep the smoke going.

the beginning of the bees. part 1.

So this winter, while all of the natural world was in dormancy, I dreamed of the bees. I wanted to manage my own hives and I dreamed of all that I would do with the honey and propolis and beeswax. Also, bees= fun. 

Logistically, I knew that I wanted to order "nucs", as opposed to "packages." Nucs act like little colonies; they contain all the components of a regular hive including a laying queen,  built out comb, and food. The only differences are that that they are contained, so the bees cannot escape, and that they are only 4-5 frames. A package of bees, is , quite literally,  just a package of bees. A box with special mesh screening for circulation, it also contains a can of sugar syrup for food and a special queen cage  so the queen is protected and undisturbed during travel.  While it is quite possible to have healthy hives started with  a package, chances are much slimmer, and it takes a while for the hive to build out the comb for the queen to lay. 

More after the break.....

Oh, Hello. I am reclaiming my old blog.

Why, hello there.  This is my "new" blog.  As you can seen if you take a gander below, that I have actually had this blog for quite some time.  In it's original manifestation, this blog was where I posted random tidbits from my life and about my original foray into beekeeping.  

Update: I graduated college, those bees died, I moved. 

But, I still love bees, I still love poetry, I still have an obsession with ball jars and, as I worded in a post from 2009, I still desire to live a "life of compassion and stewardship." So things change and things don't change. I left a couple of posts below for your perusal, but hopefully this blog with evolve to become informational and inspirational. I just started 4 beehives on April 21, and will post later this week documenting the beginnings of these hives. And to the right, is a photo of cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, because I love me some flowers.

Wild Geese, Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clear blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Sometimes...

...Nature takes over us.

Check out this video! looking at it for research, but when I think of the life I want to create for myself, it is in transition.

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.