Beltane Waxing Garlic Moon
Colony #1: This is the colony in which my queen release went well. She’s been busy. The second hive box, on only a week, has all the brood frames with brood, some full, some partial, so I went ahead and added another hive box. This is the colony I’m going to keep as a parent colony for next spring. I’ve decided I want to manage the other two for maximum honey and then let them die out in the fall.
Colony #2: The first of the one’s where the queen got to her job a week late because I didn’t handle the release well. (at least I didn’t kill her, which I did last year) This colony seems to be putting a lot of honey in the two supers I added in place of a second hive box. Not sure what that means, but it for sure means we’re not ready for another set of supers quite yet.
Colony #3: The second late queened colony. This colony has brood in the bottom of the two honey supers I added last week, and seems to be storing honey in the top one. Again, I don’t know what this means, but this one is not ready for another two supers yet either. I plan to check both of them mid-week, just in case they accelerate the brood production process.
Once again, these bees are placid, friendly, and diligent. Great colleagues in our life here. I feel lucky to have them.
Artemis, our patron goddess, has several images, as do most of the Greek pantheon, but this one always causes some consternation. What’s with all those blobs on her chest? Though a common explanation suggests they are breasts, symbolizing her role as a fertility goddess, some scholarship suggests they may instead be bull’s testicles or gourds, both also potent symbols of fertility in Asia.
I saw this statue in a museum near the ancient city of Ephesus. From nearby it was also possible to see the one remaining pillar from her great temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now, it looks bereft, a lone monument in a not too well tended field.
On the same trip Kate and I went to Delos, the site of the Delian Leagues treasury during the glory days of Greece. Artemis and her brother Apollo were born on this island. It’s a small, uninspiring rocky island, but it has a storied past that makes it more than repay a visit.