bone ticklers

Rainy days--a chance to catch up.

The high school crew comes over on Wednesday and we build frames for bee hives so we'll be ready for the spring increase in the apiary.

This time last year we had three active hives. Through donations, ordering new bee packages in the mail (they arrive in a small screen box--3 pounds of worker bees and a queen, herself secluded in a tiny screened throne with a few attendants), and catching two swarms out of the alder tree (see photo), we were up to ten active hives over the summer. They survived Bee Camp, being inspected by groups of children nearly every day for two weeks. Through all of this, only the instructor got stung, and only once. The bees are very tolerant.

I've been stung twice by honey bees here, on the same day. Another kind of bee stung me that day as well, but I didn't see the culprit. I've been working with bees for almost three years now, and that's the only time I've been stung. I was in a bad mood, to put it mildly. I was not 'sending the bees love,' as I usually consciously do when working the hives. Bees are tuned in, ready to remind you be present in your actions.

Fortunately, my friend Plantain, Plantago major, grows abundantly in the garden. For each sting, I chewed a leaf, taped it on the sting for about 10 minutes, and was left with just a small itchy spot as opposed to the massive swelling I would have had in the absence of treatment. I thanked the bees for yanking me out of my funk.

This fall was hard on our apiary. We lost two hives to American Foul Brood, so named because of the stink of rotting flesh it produces as the bacteria breaks down the cells of the larvae in the hive. This spore-bearing bacteria can spread in the wind, so we must remove these hives and burn or bury them. The only other option is to treat with antibiotics, not in line with our organic practices.

We're not quite sure what happened to the five other hives we lost. We think two were queenless and just dwindled. Others were weakened and infested with wax moths and wax beetles, imported pests that feast on, yes, wax. What was left of the honey and bees and brood from these hives, we added to our strong hives. We're back down to 3.

Now we must clean out the equipment from the abandoned hives and continue to build new hives to prepare for a more organized year of beekeeping.

Observing the hives with a group of 4 and 5 year olds one day, a child exclaims "bees tickle your bones!" I ask for clarification. "You know, they tickle your bones." Oh. Do you mean from the vibrations of their buzzing? "Yes!" Of course. Add that to the list of benefits of having bees in the garden. They tickle your bones.