It has been a fairly dry summer here, and all the while we have needed rain for gardens and flowers, the bees dislike the rain. My bees get fairly grumpy and many of the younger ones just hang out on the landing board or pile up under the edge of the cover along the front of the hive. I tend to wait a few days after the rain to let them get back into the swing of things. This is the weekend I had hoped to open the cover and see how the honey has flowed over the past several weeks. It will probably be delayed due to the rain that is expected. As for photos, I have not had a chance to even think about getting shots of this years's hives.

So much to do with so little time. Fortunately the bees are on their own schedule of time and place.

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.

One of the nice things about being a beekeeper is the fact that it is kind of novel and people have tons of questions. Just this past month I gave an interview to th elocal newspaper about my bees. The interview lasted quite some time and the reporter, who is an excellent writer, seemed quite engaged by the topic.

The photographer was another story. I think that the thought of being within a few feet of several thousand bees was to much to contemplate. After several attempts at setting a date and time, in fact, I ended up having my lovely wife take the photos.

After a few candids were taken I decided to use up some time and shot several extreme closeups of the bees as they arrived back to the hive from a day of forraging. So delicate were their wings and gentle feelers. The smell of the hives, the murmur of the grass and the low buzz of the brood chamber. It brought back all the reasons that I am keeping bees.

Beekeeping makes you slow down. In the age of ATM's and the World Wide Web, beekeeping is still as simple today as it has been for centuries. I like observing and could watch the hive for hours on end. The best part is the slow pace of discovery.

In fact it was the observation recently of birds & bees that has brought up an interesting question. I have two ,count em, two pairs of nesting Baltimore Orioles. On each side of the hives hanging over the bees are the brightly colored nesters. Is this a coincidence? A friend at MassAudubon reports of a South American bird in the same family as the Baltimore Oriole that does just what I have described. The bird nests near bees so that the bees will provide safety from predators at the nest. I have emailed the local beekeepers with the question as to whether they have observed the same in the vicinity of their nests. Three beekeepers have reported that indeed there may be something to all this.

After I had put away the camera and taken off my veil, the sun had just about set and the mosquitos began their unmerciful attacks. As I walked towards the house a bright orange Oriole flitted past and into the hanging nest. I was happy to have the ballance of all things just right.

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It has been so very wet and damp here in Canton. The weather has deflated the ego's of many of the bees in the hives at the edge of the brook.

I received three calls this week from area residents reporting swarms. Of the three, only one swarm was picked up by a Norfolk County Beekeeper. Gary Libby travelled all the way to Stoughton to pick up a two and a hlaf pound ball of bees from a low hanging branch. The bees have been safely installed in a hive on the property of Ward's Berry Farm where they will happily polinate many crops throughout the summer.

I placed brood chambers on all three of my hives two weeks ago in order to give the gals more room to flex their wings. I hope to have honey supers on by July 4th.

We'll see...Tut Tut Looks Like Rain.

Norfolk County Beekeepers Association

On Monday I installed a very strong package of bees into my third hive. These bees were rearing to go, as they had already begun to make honeycomb inside their shipping container.

I installed the bees late in the day so that they would settle into their new home without much fuss. I have to say that it was and always will be an amazing experience. Several thousand bees flying around and ultimatley settling into their new hive. The sounds, smells and sights are so wonderful. It was if all nature was coalescing at my little hive spot.

So, all three hives are now up and running. I will check tonight to see if the newest hive has released and accepted the queen into the colony. All is well from Postfield.

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The trees are producing such amazing amounts of pollen this late in the year. Having such a rough winter has pushed Spring into late May. In fact it is still cool here and overcast today. The bees are a bit ornery due to the change in weather and the damp week we have had.

Otherwise all is well.

Early this morning I took a walk down to the hives. As the morning sunshine warmed the white boxes, several of the more daring "scouts" were out and about getting used to their new surroundings.

Life on Pequit Brook is very different from their home in Louisiana. Soon they will lose their southern buzzin drawl. The bees are hovering in front of their hive to begin fixing their location and new home. Over the next few days they will hover farther and farther as they get used to the surroundings.

What do they see with their bee eyesight? As they hover back farther and further, they will see their brook, several bird boxes, a woodland scene, a swamp and a great nature preserve. They will forage over two miles and return to their brood chamber with the pollen that will nourish and enrich the colony. My bees will polinate countless vegetable gardens, fruit trees and flower beds. There is nothing quite like the warm buzzing of the apiary on a gentle spring day.

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audblog audio post

While it has been awhile since I have blogged, Spring has occasioned upon us here in New England, and as such I have begun my musings again. All of my bees had died this past winter.

It had been a tough year and I think that by December all three hives had pretty much been wiped out. In March I failed to hear the telltale buzzings inside. On a warm late winter day I opened the hives to find all of the bees dead. It was pretty depressing to lose all those insects.

But, with life comes certain death, and in the case of the beekeeper, there are so many things that can destroy a colony, it was pretty evident that this was to be my lesson. In moving on, I have purchased two nucs from Merrimac Appiaries and these gals are very strong.

Yesterday I nstalled two fresh nucs into the hives. Bees and Beekeeper doing well.