Warm Winter Weather Hive Inspections

Bright pollen stored in old brood comb.

"It took my breath away, too, 

how we could take up so little space and yet contain it all, 

the vast demands, the amplitude of love."

- Marisa de los Santos

Brood comb is darker than honeycomb mostly because some of the cocoons that the bees develop in remain and merge with the comb. This comb is from one of my four hives that died over the winter (the one the bear got into this past summer). All these provisions (3 and a half medium supers) will be used for the other hives and any splits I make. I will make at least one split to replace this loss. 

The other three hives are doing well and all have 60-140# of honey on them each. So I may harvest honey in the Spring once a good nectar flow is on and there is no expectation of any super cold stretches. My fingers are crossed that I lose no hives in the next couple months with this strange warm weather. (78! degrees today!).  

The bees are bringing in loads of pollen which stimulates brood rearing. Once there is brood in the hive to keep warm, the bees may prioritize this over leaving the brood to die, even if it means starving to death because the nectar stores are just a bit too far away to get to because of cold temperatures. The bees are clustered in a ball, and move and work as a unit in the hive, when the temperatures are in the 40s; in the 30s they will not break cluster. The queen is kept in the middle of the cluster to an amazing 95 degrees regardless of outside temps! 

So, strangely warm weather in winter can jump start Spring processes with the bees, just like it does with, for instance, fruit trees.  The warm spell makes the creature think spring is here, and their cycle changes, then we get a cold snap...and flower buds freeze - meaning no fruit for the year, or bee queens lay eggs that metamorph into larvae that then need to be kept warm. 

Ariadne, pollen laden landing

Stella, full pollen baskets

These two above hives are of genetics in their 8th winter, with no treatments, no re-queening...  These are hives whose genetics are what I've been working for - bees who can do their thing without my coddling or manipulation, just gentle support, those who can withstand mites, etc. without my propping them up with artificial inputs or anthropocentric meddling - and will continue working for as I go into my 11th year of beekeeping...  I knew when I began that this had to be possible and I am finally feeling vindicated in going against what I was taught (ie:  you must put pesticides in the hive to control mites, you must kill the queen and replace her every two years, etc.)

'Tumultuous Acquisition'

 

 "The sign of a soul awake is outrage."

 - James Hillman

~

Gail Force: The Irrefutable Invitation

The call
The caw
It issued forth
          from the Crow's mouth
          but it was prayer
               on my lips.
It pierced the morning
          separating night from day.
I clung to its echoes
     the way a bird clings
     to a ferocious wind
          no choice
     as it cleaves its space from the air. 
          Slicing the indivisible
               the way a moment
               slices future from past
     yet changes in each instant
     always different, always the same.

I knew the day'd be bright
     whether or not the sun shone
for I'd spent my ~time~
     in the blackness of that night. 

 

Back and Forth - A Photo Journal of Reveries

Juxtaposition on today

"Magic is just science we don’t understand yet.

 - Arthur C. Clarke

Containing Keys

 In creative work — creative work of all kinds — those who are the world’s working artists 

are not trying to help the world go around, but forward. Which is something altogether different 

from the ordinary. Such work does not refute the ordinary. 

It is, simply, something else. 

Its labor requires a different outlook — a different set of priorities."

 - Mary Oliver

An invitation

...and a gazing within

“At worst, ​one is in motion; and at best, 

Reaching no absolute, in which to rest, 

One is always nearer by not keeping still.”

 - Thom Gunn 

.

 “You can recognize a pioneer by the arrows in his back.”

- ​Beverly Rubic

Layers

Ravenwind Botanica Coriander Oil Infusing

"​Close some doors. 

Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, 

but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.”

​ - ​Paulo Coelho

Art supplies/animal findings

"But when I lean over the chasm of myself - 
it seems my God is dark
and like a web: a hundred roots
silently drinking.
This is the ferment I grow out of.
More I don't know, because my branches 
rest in deep silence, stirred only by the wind."
  - Rainer Maria Rilke

Slow Food - Nourishing Body and Soul (organic potatoes and healthy fat)

“Of all evil I deem you capable:  therefore I want good from you. 

Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings 

who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

 - Friedrich Nietzsche

Calendula: Summer Bottled

The teacher who is indeed wise 

does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom 

but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind." 

 - Kahlil Gibran 

 - and Gone Again