Experience is a brutal teacher. But you learn, my God, do you learn.

-C.S. Lewis



Stream In January

Stream In January

Monday, January 12, 2009

Fascinating "Bee-havior"

No, that's not a real bee, but one of my best Christmas gifts this year. My daughter gave me this beautiful painting of one of my favorite subjects - HONEYBEES!

I watched my bees for a short time late this morning. The temperature is about 42, but although the sun is shining, it's a cold 42. They fed on the sugar syrup, but at almost 2:00 they are already back snug in the hive. I watched one little bee exhibit the strangest behavior until I figured out what she was doing. After much wiggling and scratching on her part, I realized she had a small piece of debris on her little bee feet. She worked diligently until it fell to the ground. After closer inspection, I realized that what she was cleaning off her front door step was the remains of a wing from one of her sisters. Bees are fastidious housekeepers. Maybe this will rub off on me!

I'll worry some about Walter Bee this week. Our temperatures are forecast to be very cold and maybe some snow on Tuesday and Thursday. I continue to hope there is enough honey in the hive for my fascinating friends to survive until spring. I doubt I'll see them feeding again this week.

2 comments:

vicree said...

When some of the nip left the air this afternoon, I ventured out to some of the storage areas (mainly the tractor shed) hoping to find some of the old bee stuff that had belonged to your grandad. But, alas, there was none to be found. I'm disappointed because I know you would love to have something of his. I guess all the equipment went when the bees did. Probably someone local still has the items he used, but we have no way of finding out now that both Dad and Mama are gone. However, I don't give up easily so I will continue to ask around!!

Lynn said...

That would be wonderful if something was found. Any garden items that you might want to pass along at some later date would be a treasure to me.