Following the Southern Regional Bee Disease Study Day @ Benson, I was inspired to get more 'personal' with my Bee's. Hence, I pitched in and bought a microscope, plus ancillaries!
Here are a few tentative, and not too brill' shots taken of one of my girls. She was found in the bottom of the hive, having passed on to the Summerlands, during a recent hive inspection.
After seeing her in all her magnificent glory, I have REALLY taken more of a shine to these facinating creatures! They need our help at every level! PLEASE........
Today however, I was at my 'Lottie' hive and witnessed first hand robbing by wasps. Now, i am a shooting and fishing man, and have lived almost all my life in the countryside, so do not consider myself 'fluffy' about life & death in the wild. But, what I watched broke my heart.
Dead bee's littered the grass in front of the hive, and wasp after wasp entering my hive at will. I vowed to take my revenge! So after restricting the entrance even further, to a single bee space, I stood guard! Shoulder to shoulder with my girls, swatting til my knuckles ached......and after half an hour in the rain the yellow body count was mounting!
Later on, at home, Lynne and I reflected on the scene. I was genuinely upset at the potential loss of one of my colonies, pouring over my growing library of Beekeeping books to find an answer. Lynne however, was very philosophical about the whole thing. ''Its just nature, its what wasps do.....'', true, but NOT to my new colony!
But she is right, I vowed to 'do the right thing', and find natural ways of stopping the slaughter, tho' many would call me a hypocrite, as a shooting man.
Everything on this wonderful planet lives in balance with everything else......except man. We see nothing wrong in defiling our gorgeous home, poisoning our precious wildlife, and killing each other into the bargain! Usually, because someone drew a line on a map somewhere. Well today, I stood up for the 'little guy', or in this case......my girls! They are the most gentle bee's I have encountered in over 5 years of beekeeping, and they needed a hand, plain and simple.
2 comments:
beautifully written post Steve!
We shall do all we can to look after the bees.
Tim has e-mailed James at The Hive to see if he has any more specific suggestions for a hive under attack.
Julie
x
Cheers guys! after all our hard work getting things up and running as well! Nature will always take over and throw up some suprises!
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