Beth is in town to observe the student teachers at school. We wanted to go out to eat, but I had bee class last night, so we went to a place near my class site called “By the Docks”. Michele says they have the best crab cakes. I can take or leave crab cakes, so I got prime rib. It was good. I ate some fat.
Bee class was good. I’ve been thinking about whether I would keep bees or not. The stinging part of things has been sort of freaking me out. I seem to have a disproportionate fear of being stung. After class last night I was excited about having bees again. But this morning I’m thinking about the stings again.
In bee class we learned about bee diseases. Steve had six recommendations for a healthy hive. They all seem pretty easy. One of his recommendations was to re-queen each year. Queens only live for about two years, so he said once a year you should take out the old one and put a new one in. You can order them in the mail. They come in a tiny little box with a few attendant bees. He brought a live queen along so we could see her, but something happened and she and all her attendants died. He was sad.
Oh, I’m sad, too. Poor little bees.
Yay for dinner with friends! You all look so nice! Will you please tell us everyone’s names, because I’m only sure of a handful. (And I have a suspicion about the photographer.)
So how do you dethrone a queen bee? How do you know which one is the queen? Do they all have a red dot on them? What do you do with the ousted queen? Freeze her? Back over her with your truck? Do you hire an assassin? Does the queen come from India and that’s why there’s a red dot on her?
I need answers!! 🙂 (And I need names, just like Lauren.)
Wow, those are all good questions. I too demand some answers.
Hear, hear!
He said, “WOW. THOSE ARE ALL GOOD QUESTIONS. I TOO DEMAND SOME ANSWERS.”
I think “hear, hear!” is an idiom in some countries. Shouting won’t help.
You have to remove the old queen by hand. Most queen breeders paint them so you can find them more easily. If they’re not painted, you look for her bald back. The hairs get rubbed off by all the attendants who constantly swarm all over her body. Steve said you can just pinch the queen to death and throw her in the grass, or you can put her into a cage and give her to some kid and spark some interest in beekeeping.
The new queen has to be introduced carefully, or the hive will kill her.
Most queens would come from the continental U.S., but Steve likes to order them from Hawaii because they don’t have bee mites there.
Ok. Here’s the list of people at the table (from Brad, going clockwise):
Brad, Beth, Carol, Brittany (ST), across the table from Brittany is: Julie, then Julia (ST), Dee (ST), Jacque (ST), Michele and then yes, Peggy was taking the picture…her seat was next to Brad’s.
I don’t have any more answers about the bees. Except that when one stings you between your toes it hurts like heck.
Also, I’m having a great time :D!! WooooHoooo for Baltimore!! WoooHooo for IKEA (sorry Lauren)!!! WooooHoooo for eating out!!!
Three days later and nobody went for the obvious one, so I feel compelled:
“The Queen is dead – long live the queen!!!”