We have our bees!! We spent a fantastic day building our very own top-bar hive and brought it home with the girls themselves. It has been exhilarating, joyous, and a little nerve wracking! We are delighted with the prospect of sheltering these beautiful, magical beings and look forward to many years of exploration and hopefully, in due time and not until, some of the sacred gifts of the bees' sweetness... the honey, propolis, and wax.
The process of installing the bees was not without it's minor snafus, in the attempt to be gentle, I didn't shake enough of the little ladies out into the hive the first time thinking they'd just fly in, but they weren't getting the idea and finally needed to be moved in by hand from the cluster they'd formed on the leg of the hive. A good misting of sugar/water (which makes them too heavy to fly and too busy eating sugar to care) and I was able to gently brush them into a bowl and right into the hive. I am looking forward to feeling more at ease as I get to know them, and they me. I kept thinking of a recent article which reported that scientists have been able to prove that bees 'recognize' faces... I wonder when I will become recognized! I am very much in love already, and looking forward to building more hives in years to come.
Zoe turns six years old today! She is such an amazing kid, who now wants a bee suit of her own so she can help me with the girls. She continues to be our resident 'Chicken Whisperer', and if we can find some time in the next week or two to build another coop will be caring for another eight chicks... which will finally give us enough eggs to sell some!
Lastly, some beautiful shots of the Bloodroot and Trillium I planted last year and was so sure would never come up this spring. Sometimes, it's SO good to be wrong! We wish you a blissful spring, may the seeds you plant both in the Earth and in your heart bloom brightly!
