Beautiful Day

Everybody loves some henbit nectar.

I tried to come up with a nice pun for the title of this blog entry.  I really did.  But the day was too nice to try and be clever about it.  As I write this, the smoky smell of burned pine straw and the sweet smell of dripped honey still clings to me.  And I am as happy as I can be.

Today, the Central Mississippi Beekeeper Association held their annual short course for beginning beekeepers.  About sixty of us novices showed up at 7:30 in the morning, some carrying their own veil and jacket and assorted paraphernalia, and others came just with a notebook.  A vast majority of us do not currently have bees.  Some, like me and the lovely couple sitting next to me, had lost the hives we had.  Others had never even opened a box, and were here to do so for the first time.

Kip, showing off uncapped brood.

And then there were the old salts.  The novices clustered around the seasoned vets, well, like bees around a flower.  Jim Pennington, Kip Isonhood, Martha Brackin, the amazing Jeff Harris - all had experiences to share.  And we couldn't get enough of it.

In some groups I have been a part of, knowledge is hoarded, and only shared with novices once they have gone through the initiation process.  Full-scale rite of passage.

Not so with beekeepers.  Everyone, from the experienced hobbiest who has kept between four and ten hives for years, to the commercial guys who have hundreds of hives over miles of territory, is willing, anxious, even, to share their information. 

They are also, for the most part, a humble group.  I suspect that beekeeping does that for you - the bees themselves keep you from feeling that you are in control.  In the four hours of lectures, I must have heard thirty different times, "well, this is a personal preference thing," even when describing something that could potentially save a hive.

Because everyone has a different set of experiences, and a different way that works for them.  There are natural beekeepers who don't use chemicals in their hives. There are others who are looking to maximize output.  Some love tall hives, while others swear by keeping to three small boxes, and splitting hives.  Debates - long-standing debates - were discussed.

• Eight frame boxes, or ten 
•  Langstroth or top bar (or Warre!)  
• Queen excluders  
• Sunny placement, or shady placement of the hives
• Optimal distance from the next hive
• Medium supers, deep broodhives, medium everything....

Some are just interested in having the pollinators, and so they want the healthiest bees.  And nobody was willing to claim that their way was right.  Kip even started his talk with us by saying,

"Mostly, I can tell you how to kill bees.  I seem pretty good at that."

(Kip has hundreds of hives.  And is an amazing fount of knowledge, and he is willing to share.)

But the best thing was that everyone was telling stories about what had worked for them.  And what had not worked for them.  Because everyone wants to have happy, healthy bees.  And the best way to do that is sharing all of the information at your disposal.  Enthusiastically sharing about the new bottom board that keeps beetles out.  Explaining how and when you split hives to make happy bees. Even talking about when the best thing you can do is to destroy your hives.... a sad last step that is sometimes necessary.

After lunch sandwiches (included in the 20-dollar registration), we spent a couple of hours out on the bee yard, with the experienced guides working the bees and opening hives and showing us how to count mites and offering suggestions on how to space the frames....

All the while we were breathing in that lovely, smoky, sweet aroma of open hives. 

If anything, the day was too short, and there was too much information passed along.  It was hard to process all of the steps that I have not yet gone through.  The seasonality.  The winter feeding and frequency.  The treatments, and the optimal orientation, after a while, the details started to blur a little. 

But if I have questions, I have people who I can ask.  And they are wonderful people.

Note: don't stand between the entrance and the returning bees.....

Beekeeping is not generally a social activity.  In this case, the guys who know it best made an exception for those of us who understand it least, so that we can do it well this year.

And I simply can't wait.

I will get my bees in May.  I am counting the days.