Lessons learned from chickens

[Downthestretch55]

The Apiary

For those that don't know about what it's about, suffice it to say I've said a lot about the birds in this thread. Now I'll talk about the bees. That's where they live, in the apiary.
You might know that there are many varieties of bees. Some are very aggressive, tough to handle, but produce more honey. Those that are a bit less productive but easier to be around were my choice. They were called "midnights".
The queen and her six workers were sent in a tiny cage. On arrival, a little barrier was removed so the workers could release her to begin her hive.
A hive is made of "supers". There are frames in each with foundation (precast bee's wax) for the production of comb. In a heathy hive, the bottom two are for the hive. It's where the workers (immature females) build comb, store food, and raise the young. A fertile queen will lay her eggs anywhere she can. The workers will care for them from larvae to pupae.
The queen needs to be prevented from going to the upper parts of the hive, or she'll lay eggs there too. So a wire mesh called a queen excluder is put between the bottom two and the top ones. Otherwise, you'll get no honey, just a lot more bees.
Once the hive is established, one super at a time is added. As long as the queen is kept out, the workers will fill it with honey. Sad to say, at the height of the summer season, a worker will only live for three weeks to produce her tablespoon of honey before her death, dancing a dance to tell others where the nectar and pollen treasure is located. Who needs GPS when you can dance?
As the season cycles, different types of honey are made. I like red clover and wildflower. Early season honey like willow is a bit strong to my taste.
So, how do you get the bees to allow you to take away their honey you might wonder? Well, first off, I already told you about the different varieties of bees. Some get very angry. That's why I like the midnights. When they're working on a bright sunny day, they hardly notice. They're too busy gathering.
Pull off the super and scrape the propalis (wax-like stuff to seal the hive), and shoot a little smoke (they think they're having a forest fire), and it calms them down.
Then the caps (top of the comb) is cut off and the frame is put into a device that spins out the honey like a centerfuge (think blender).
The caps are great to chew, especially if you have allergies or a sore throat.
The honey can be filtered and bottled. The frames left in the yard and the bees will collect back anything that was missed. back to the hive to be stored as honey again. Pretty neat if you ask me.
Taking away their food but leaving their home and enough in their pantry seems ok.
Now about the drones. Those lazy male bees that just hang around the hive all summer long, eating the honey and watching baseball games on those tiny plasma tv's. Heck, all they ever were expected to do was to fly high enough to mate with a reluctant new queen so that one of them could have magical sex high in the sky. One lucky drone, the strongest flier...the rest are just bums I tell you! Having the girls get their food while they play poker with those little cards.
Well, come the first hard frost in October, guess what happens. Those hard working females set their lazy as ses straight. No divorce in the bee world is allowed. They kick them out of the hive and post guards at the entrance so they can't come back in. No wall stretching from California to Texas....get out and stay out, bee boys! Freeze your lazy self off! There's only enough honey for us doncha know?
Go get em girls!
Now, if I could only find a better way to protect you all from black bears.
Chain link fence that's eight feet high doesn't seem to have had an effect.
As Gilda R (rip) said, "It's always something"!
Sweet.

[Downthestretch55]

Lost

I must admit that there was a time that I was lost. I was going down the wrong road trying very hard to get to my destination, stomping my foot harder on the accelerator in my hurry to get there, but it wasn't getting me there.
The boyscouts were buckled in the back seat, three of them. They were looking forward to getting more merit badges, nice campfires, marshmallows, and everything else that awaited their two weeks at camp. Their duffle was packed, and the tents awaited.
I was to be their leader, if I could only find the way to get them there.
But somehow, I was given the wrong directions. I must have taken a right turn when I should have gone straight, or something else. I missed the turn.
I admit it.
So after barreling down that dirt road for about a half an hour, going nowhere closer to where I thought we were going, I stopped.
I was lost. So were the three eager boy scouts in the backseat, all nicely dressed in their pressed uniforms. They just didn't know it yet.
After I turned off the ignition, I turned to them in the backseat and admitted that I had made a mistake, or someone else had made a mistake when they wrote the directions, and the reality of the situation, boys, is that we're lost, very lost.
So guys, what do you think we should do?
Well, for being young they provided some good insight.
One said that if we're going in the wrong direction, going further in that direction wouldn't get us closer to where we were hoping to go.
Good point.
And trying to get there faster won't get there either.
OK...
So, what do you think I should do, guys?
One said, how about turning around, going back a while, finding someone that might know how to get there, and asking for new directions.
That was good advice!
So, about an hour later, I came upon a logger that was climbing off his skidder.
He knew exactly where we wanted to go and gave new directions. The new way was complicated and tough to follow, and in all honesty, I wish I'd listened better. Unfortunately, I didn't.
So after another hour and a half of turning here and watching for this sign post, we were even more lost than before. Go figure.
The boy scouts had stopped their "are we there yet?" long enough to realize that we weren't.
I was a bit more than frustrated by now. I asked the three of them, well guys, what do you think. Two of the three said we were definitely going in the wrong direction. The other one said he didn't know, but it didn't matter to him. He said we should just keep going the way we were going and maybe, hopefully we'd get there.
Thankfully, I went with the advice of the two-thirds polling. We turned around and a little while later, there was a highway. A half mile later, an ice cream place came up. We all had triple scoop cones, any flavors, and the nice gal behind the counter gave me a new map.
Ten minutes later, we arrived in camp, ten minutes after that, we were unpacked, and five minutes later, we were all swimming in the cool waters of that beautiful lake. Splish, splash.
No longer lost!

[Downthestretch55]

Today I feature a writer that also uses mataphor...much better than myself.
Garrison Keillor, "A Whale of a Challenge".
Thanks Mr. K. Guest author, truth speaker. "Whales"...welcome to the farm.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0118-22.htm

[timmgirvan]

Well...I see the "rest" didn't do you any good! So..did you travel awhile??

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

Well...I see the "rest" didn't do you any good! So..did you travel awhile??

Timm,
I'm well rested. Also pretty good. What did you mean?
Travel is limited...roads are snowy and icy.
On a side note, I don't have a problem at all with intelligent disagreement on
current topics, but there have been a few (not you) that rather than pursue
polite discourse, chose personal belittling comments. Unacceptable in my humble view.
DTS

[timmgirvan]

You were gone for a few, so I thought maybe you took a little trip with friends! I figured your neck of the woods was frigid...so maybe you flew to warmer weather for a respite.

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by timmgirvan

You were gone for a few, so I thought maybe you took a little trip with friends! I figured your neck of the woods was frigid...so maybe you flew to warmer weather for a respite.

Timm,
Nice to know I was missed.
Actually, there's something very nice about the winter woods.
If you've never strapped on a pair of snow shoes or bucked up some cross country skis, well, I just can't tell ya. Nicer than the snowmobile, and I've been riding that too.
Two AM in the woods, stars, coyotes howling...about as good as it gets. Snowshoes are the way to go.
Unless...the ice will finally be thick enough to drill some holes and put in some tip-ups.
To everything, there is a season....
and a time to every purpose.