In Reply to: Re: james and women posted by mark on November 04, 2005 at 08:18:48:
I bought two hives of bees while on a refuge farm while in the Fam and tried my hand at beekeeping. I took three stings on my first day opening up a hive. I took them right in the face too. The bees crawled up under my net just at the V under my Adam's apple. I was far too rough with them and ticked them right off. I learned to slow down and be gentle after that. My next hit was when I rototilled a little too close to the hives. I took a hit in the forehead one day while watching them spill out of the hive during a peak honey flow. I was on a path somewhat away from the heavy flight pattern when all of a sudden, WHAP! Ha! And then one day while driving my tractor down the road, I took another hit right in the forehead. One hive was weak and the other was strong so I took some brood from the strong hive and added it to the other and they both did marvellously well. Of course, we had a field of yellow sweet clover across the road so they rocked right out.
I picked up a few more hives many years and many moves later and had some pretty good successes. I eventually got too busy with other things, though, to be beekeeping and gave it up. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it tremendously.
I noticed that certain birds enjoyed a feast of dead drones outside the hives on their migrations back north in the spring. Yes, all things DO work together for good.
I don't like getting my hands wet when it comes to dishes and have found that if I don't do them, Ethel does (hee hee.) But then again, I don't have arthritis.
Good luck with your future beekeeping and tell me a few of your beekeeping stories if you've got some time.