Tuesday, March 30th. Another stellar spring day in North Central Florida. Every year, I'm more and more in love with this place, and today the new green leaves and the forests full of flowers just filled my heart. The doggies requested another trip to the river this week, so we loaded up and drove over to Chastain Seay Park in Worthington Springs, where we walked the somewhat teetery elevated boardwalk trail, along the river and through hardwood hammock. If you haven't been to this park, I recommend it. Especially this time of year, when the Santa Fe is high and everything is in bloom. The wild azaleas are flowering this week, and their heady honeysuckle & cotton candy fragrance is almost sweet enough to drown out the stench of wet swamp dog!
On the way home past the neighbor's pasture, I had a double tortoise sighting. Two big'uns, clearing their burrows along the fence line. Jordan's decided, and I believe him, that any day you see the gopher tortoise is a good day.
Yesterday, I experienced my first sting. I approached the feeder to make sure syrup was flowing, and a bee got caught in my hair, panicked and stung me on the tip of my ear lobe. Ow! It was my fault. I feel that bees are like horses: most of the time, if they hurt you, it was your own fault. In this case, I approached too quickly, without speaking, and I had my hair down--something Neil specifically warned me about. ("They don't like to feel trapped.") Also, the feeder wasn't working, and the ladies seemed a little frantic. I spent the rest of the day visiting them and tweaking the thing until it kept flowing, without further incident. Lesson learned!
I picked up a 10 lb bag of sugar today, something I don't think I've ever done in my life! But the hive may need extra food for two or three more weeks, and so far they're going through about a quart a day.
It's been nice to have two days at home to watch them and make sure things are functioning properly. The hive starts to get direct sun around 9 am, and stays sunny until nearly 6 pm, so that's about 9 hours of good sun a day. I think that's about as good as it gets for sun hours in our little forest glade. Next week, I will start setting out some vegetable plants in the little raised bed adjacent to the hive. Last year, every pumpkin we harvested was a direct result of me hand pollinating the female flowers with a little paintbrush. Can't wait to see how production improves now that we have pollinators!
We opened the hive again this evening, when Jordan got home from work, to remove the now empty queen cage. This time, the bees hadn't built their comb around it. Did they learn?? it's tempting to think so! We buttoned up and brought the smudge stick, and I spoke to the bees. I particularly wanted them to know it was the last time we'd need to bother them for a week. It's a marvel to watch the way Jordan handles the bees. He's so patient, moves so slowly, it's almost as if he disappears.
I got a good peep inside as we worked, and it looks as if they've drawn nice sized comb on several bars. I hesitate to use the word industrious--so cliche-but I'm not sure there's a better word! They are so focused, so assured in their purpose. I'm fascinated. Handling them is new kind of challenge for me, simultaneously exhilarating and grounding. I'm certain beekeeping is going to make me a better person.