Wednesday, March 13, 2013

.adventures in bee keeping. pt.1

In 2010 I was working in my garden when I saw what I thought was a Silver Bee. The following summer I saw it again, several times and wanting to know What It Was, spent two weeks trying to take a picture of it. This is the only really clear shot I got.
Come two years later, and I've finally figured out that it's probably a Mason Bee, and the entire reason I couldn't find any information on "silver bees" is because it's color it referred to as blue.

One of the things I'm going to start focusing in on in my paintings (hopefully to expand to sculpture once I figure out what I'm doing) is bees - particularly honey bees and their importance to Life As We Know It.  In an effort to thoroughly educate myself on the subject, i signed up for a Beginner Beekeeping class - guessing that if anyone I had access to would know everything about bees, local beekeepers would be high on that list.
The class is two days - about four hours each day and this past Sunday was my first taste of Things I Found Out I Didn't Really Know Anything About At All - most glaringly Bee Swarms, and how to assemble a Bee Hive which looks like way more work and trouble than I ever though possible for what is essentially a bug house.
Also, buying bees is really expensive - way out of my price range, so unless someone gifts me with a hive and bee package, the likelyhood of me learning about beekeeping first hand is....small.
A few gems from my class notes:
Bees will very seldom chew through ducktape.
The only thing you can't control is the weather.
Don't put your beehive in a pasture with a bad bull in it.
They have wings for a reason.
Once they make up their mind where they're going, they're gone.

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