Archive for February, 2010

A neighbor’s bees

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Less than a mile from my house lives anthroposophist and Master Beekeeper Ron Breland. Ron has some wild looking beehives. Bees don’t naturally prefer squared boxes with regular frames, and Ron is experimenting with a some alternative beehive styles. The truth is that bees evolved to live in hollow tree trunks or natural cavities in cliffs. The hives that I use are convenient for me, and not the bees. They bees, though, seem to like them well enough and thrive, but they might do as well in one of Ron’s hives or a hollow tree.

The video here is a little new age whifty for my tastes, and in my conversations with Ron he comes across more reasoned and thoughtful than he seems here.

I will be using my store bought hives again this year and I hope the weather is better and the bees thrive. I want to spend some time and perhaps, with experience, I can go Ron one better with an interesting hive design. I like the sculptural and architectural aspects of his hives and I think I might find a practical, but interesting approach to the same problem.

Martha Hive Still Alive

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The temperature went up into the mid 40s F and since I was off for president’s day, I decided to feed Martha some pollen substitute. I have a few slabs in the freezer. Martha and Connie had dead bees outside their front doors, which I expect is from mid winter cleaning.

I opened Martha and quickly set the pollen patty over the frames near where they were clustered. There was a visible mass of bees just below the top of the frames and they were moving. As I put the top back on, one slow moving girl came out of the hive to challenge me. I hope she made it back in as I quickly as I left.

By the way, yesterday, February 14, was my Aunt Connie’s 92nd birthday. Happy birthday Aunt Connie. (My granddfather was reading a book when she was born in which the heroine was named Consuela. He liked the name, but he pronounced it Con-Sue-Ella.)