This past weekend I mowed the grass around the beehives. It was a perfectly dry summer day and many of the field bees were out doing their thing. It was the light frangrance of honey on the breeze that signaled the production process. In fact, the whole yard smells like honey and beeswax. These are the days when the bees are busily fanning the hive and evaporating the water prior to ripening the honey, and the smells are intoxicating. Ahhh Summer!!!

On a recent tour through a neighbors garden I spotted several honeybees polinating too and fro. Imagine my delight to think that these are my gals so far from the hive and seeking out mid-summer sources for our little joint endeavor. It is quite fulfilling to watch a bee gather pollen and fill up the pollen bags in her legs prior to making the long trip back to Postfield. How dedicated these creatures are.

I have been away for the past week, but before I left I placed all of the honey supers on the three hives in the apiary. It was really less trouble than I imagined, in that the bees were pretty distracted by the warm summer day and paid little if any attention to the process. Also, I had stored the frames in a very large plastic container and the woodenware was in great shape after being used only two seasons. It was, however, very hot in my bee suit and I imagined doing the work without the veil and gloves...of course that was merely a fleeting thought.

My casual observations showed very strong colonies and plenty of brood and honey production. Typical bees doing typical summer work. I will do some photography in the hives over the next few weeks to share the fun with others.

In other news, there has been some sort of political upheaval in the local beekeeping club. The issue is over the proceeds from the honey made in the club hives (used for bee school.) Yes, even in the seemingly innocuous world of beekeeping politcs are still an issue. I hope for the sake of the organization a compromise can be reached.

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Beekeeping is part science and part art. The science part is biology, ecology, botany and meteorology. The art part is curiosity, creativity in problem solving and wisdom. Combine the two and throw in 120,000 bees and you have your beekeeper. Curious folks who enjoy nature and creativity...plus there must be a bit of old fashioned yankee ingenuity thrown in for good measure. My family and frinds think there is plenty of kookiness in it as well.

Being a beekeeper is knowing when to take an passive role in management of the beehive coupled with a sense as to when to intervene. It has been so very hot and humid here that at night there are thousands of honeybees languishing outside the hive entrances. It is just about time to put on the honey supers, but I have not been able to get to it yet due to the excessive heat. I have been simply leaving the bees alone, but all that is about to change since I have scehduled an inspection an some hive management this weekend. My plan is to do all this on Sunday, and I will report on the progress.

In other news, the local newspaper did a fine job writing about my bees. You can read all about is in the Canton Journal. I think that the writer did a superb job of explaining some of the finer points on keeping bees and people will enjoy the article. I like the fact that people are interested in honeybees and I am fortunate that I can be their publicist.