{"id":19874,"date":"2013-05-06T16:11:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T22:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=19874"},"modified":"2013-05-06T16:11:31","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T22:11:31","slug":"bee-diary-may-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=19874","title":{"rendered":"Bee Diary: May 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Planting Moon<\/p>\n

On a cold, snowy day not long ago I hived a 2 pound package of Italian hygienics. \u00a0My back hurt, I was clumsy. \u00a0The queen squeezed out of her cage, around the marshmallow, \"\"<\/a>requiring me to shut the hive box up more quickly than I would have liked. \u00a0A few bees remained in the package and I couldn’t get them into the hive.<\/p>\n

The cork went into the hole, the cover back on the hive box and I went back inside convinced I had failed in the hiving. \u00a0This last three weeks or so has not been a happy time for me with the severe back pain, Kona’s medical issues and Kate’s absence during that time, so I was predisposed to doubt myself.<\/p>\n

Yet. \u00a0Today I went out, on a sunny day, bright with the hope peculiar to spring, clothed in my bee suit, smoker and hive tool to hand, and lifted the cover. \u00a0Checking for brood. \u00a0Brood means the colony is queenright, the queen accepted by the colony and laying eggs. \u00a0Brood means honey once the blossoms begin to multiply and the nectar flow becomes substantial.<\/p>\n

And there they were. \u00a0Hexagonal cells capped with the distinctive brown covering the bees \"\"<\/a>use to incubate their future allies in the maintenance of the colony. \u00a0The buzzing of the hive when I lifted the lid made me sure I would find brood. \u00a0This was a living thing, vital and strong. \u00a0The noise alone made that clear. \u00a0Still, I had to find the brood cells and I did.<\/p>\n

I’m glad, too. \u00a0There were days over the last couple of weeks when I hoped that the queen had flown and the whole mess of beekeeping would recede into the past. \u00a0Now though with the weather and my mood lifting I wanted the brood to be there, to continue this ancient practice. \u00a0And it was and I will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Planting Moon On a cold, snowy day not long ago I hived a 2 pound package of Italian hygienics. \u00a0My … Continue reading Bee Diary: May 2013<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19879,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19874\/revisions\/19879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}