The Dearth
It's been a long hot summer and as the days shorten there is desperation in the air. My girls went from being mild-mannered to hot tempered. They are now in preparation for the fall. The bees are guarding their honey and defending the hive. These last few weeks have been spent moving beehives from school and preparing a new location at home for them. But as the sun sets the nectar and pollen slow, behaviors change from sweet to sassy. There is a new frantic quality in their flight, and their tiny voices go from gentle hum to a roar. In the twilight, we taped up or hives loaded them onto a truck and moved them from school. We toasted to an empty bee yard and a prosperous semester. I went from walking into the class as a newbie in March to knowing what a brood box is in September. Our lessons in beekeeping have led to a fun year and a wild ride into the depths of bee keeping. It's bittersweet as our final class approaches, and we say goodbye to the farm and new friends. It's time to do what is next. Our last few lessons in class are to be spent learning how to prepare for the cold months ahead. The new challenge is making sure they survive through the winter by feeding, treating for mites and battening the hatches.
I apologize for not blogging this last month. The end of summer is insanely busy for me. I wrapped up the last of my summer weddings, phew!
I have seen some improvements in treatment such as less hip pain, and I had 11 straight days straight without dizziness. I've managed to travel up north three times this summer and have had fewer days where I wanted to rip my head off and throw it down a ravine. Some bizarre new things have popped up but thankfully left. I recently experienced strange skin rashes as well as bladder pain. I do believe this is Bartonella rearing its ugly head. You may think it's a bad thing that new symptoms have appeared, but it's a good sign. These infections cannot be addressed in a chronic state they must be made acute to be eradicated. Bee Venom does just that. It's not fun, but sadly it is a necessity.
Besides the four beehives that Sandhya and I have at her house, I decided to adopt a new one to bring to my home. A couple from class decided they no longer wanted to do beekeeping, so I purchased their hive. Christian managed to get stung six times while moving this hive. I lightly chuckled because I secretly wanted him to understand what I go through three times a week. On a positive note, he said he felt pretty good the next day after getting stung so there you have it.
He built a cute pen temporarily on the side of our garage before we construct the portal for wintering my hive IN the garage. Oh! Did I forget to mention that I have to access my bee's all year long? Yep, I do..... and so now comes the tricky part. The long season. The first few days were crazy here at home with the new beehive in tight quarters, and I worried that my neighbors would panic about thousands and thousands of bees added to their neighborhood, but so far they've been pretty fantastic about it. The bees have been nuts flying around the yard but have managed to settle in just fine. Stay tuned for the new construction!
