I just love when things happen that
you never ever would have anticipated, and it turns out to be something really
wonderful...
Who does not adore honey?
I love, love, love this miracle food. I can eat spoons full, or
dollops on biscuits, scones and tea cakes. I enjoy my cold weather hot Lavender
tea, with a nice heaping spoonful of this golden sweetness.
Never in a million years, and after living on this 2 acres, would I have even dreamed that I would have my very own
Tingsgrove natural Italian Honey Bee colony, but, alas...I do;')
Last week, my husby had taken our pup-cub Meaka for a walk over on
our second acre. She had tugged him in the direction of a tree that I knew well.
A few years ago, an Opossum, must have been hit by an automobile
and then died in the hole near the base of the tree trunk.
Bill said that she went straight to that tree and stuck her face
into the hole and that there were a bunch of bees inside, but that fortunately
Meaka, nor he had been stung.
We have had our share of many stings from Yellow Jackets in the
past, and I was puzzled, about the fact that they had not stung her especially.
I went to take a look-see, sure enough, there were a lot of bees of
some kind. I took a couple of images and brought them back to the house and
googled, both Honey Bees and Yellow Jackets. I could see a bit of hairy parts
and that gave me hope and yet I was still not certain.
Facebook to the rescue.
I wrote a message on my status, that I was
looking for someone local who may know a beekeeper. Only a few minutes later, I
was put in contact with a friend's wife, who had her own hive. They would come
by and take a look.
It only took Melanie and Kevin seconds to determine that what I
did not have were Yellow Jackets...a great sigh of relief and what I did have
was a nice size colony of Italian Honey Bees, the most docile of the Honey Bees around
here.
We were elated that they had chosen Tingsgrove to make this hive.
Now I knew where all of the bees that had been visiting my Hummingbird feeders
and birdbath had been coming from all summer. Melanie and Kevin shared some
great information with me. The bees travel 3 miles to bring back nectar and
water to the hive. They maintain a temperature within the hive of 92' all year
round.
Today, we had a very hard rain, which we needed, but due to the
position of the hive, many bees
perished. The survivors are working hard to fix up the mess that was made. I really want to try to preserve this hive, if at all possible and
will make every possible effort to do so. More to come later
then.
*Special thanks to Kevin, Melanie and their son Doug for their friendship and thier expert help...
I really appreciate it~
Also in this post are many of the flowers on and around the grove, that produce sweet nectar for the bees and more.
I have also added in a series of Bearded Robber Flies, which happen to eat Honey Bees, as you can see in some of the images, and I have also tucked in a couple of juvie
Ruby-throated Hummingbird images, just because it was so darn cute!
For those in the USA...Happy Labor Day.
For all... Happy Monday,
Happy week, may it be a blessing for all~
