Spring Bee Hiving Moon
This will be the first year in the last 5 or 6 without bees. Just weren’t gonna work this year. A case of bad timing. I remember last year when I got the package, the colony that outperformed every other colony I’ve had three times over.
Kate was in Denver celebrating the grandkid’s birthdays. I had thrown my back out moving a heavy hive box, Kona’s cancerous tumor had gotten infected and she was near death, plus the new bees arrived. It was a cold, wet spring, just like this one and I drove out to Stillwater, picked up the bees, then stopped by John Desteian’s, my long time analyst.
The combination of back pain, Kona’s trip to the emergency vet (always very expensive), having to hive the new package in dismal weather and Kate far away had sent me into a tailspin. I needed help and John is my backstop.
And I got it from him. He turned me toward the numinous and Heidegger. That got me away from my funk and I got up the next morning, hived the new package and got Kona over to her regular vet for a follow-up visit.
It was not a great time period. Now I’m retreating from bee-keeping this year, so I can visit Gabe at his birthday party. It’s also a good year for a rest, a halt. We have a lot of honey, well over 70 pounds. We’ll focus our outdoor energy on the flowers, the vegetables and the orchard.
