(Texas) Thursday evening I headed over to Paul’s house to check on the requeened hive. I needed to confirm that the new queen had been released from her queen cage. And if not, then manually release her.
It was a beautiful evening here in North Texas, cool for May. I had forgotten my bee suit, so I borrowed the veil that I have loaned to Paul. It’s the kind that goes over your street clothes with a draw string, instead of zipping shut over a bee suit. As I popped the lid on the hive, my heart rate went up a little. I knew my clothes would offer little resistance to the odd bee that might want to sting me. It was my first time not in the bee suit in quite some time. But the bees were very calm. I’m reminded of these verses from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 16:
2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
I quickly determined that the queen was not in the queen cage. I removed the cage and put everything back together. The anxiety I had initially felt reminded me of when I first started with bees. The fear of getting stung. And then later when I had a very hot hive, and would wear three layers of clothing for protection. The sweat was incredible, and I would still get stung, with bees bouncing off my veil. I would literally be under attack. That was anxiety. The ironic thing about Thursday night is that stings have never bothered me less. My body doesn’t seem to react very much to stings anymore. But I was still impressed with how much more confidence the superior protective clothing gives.
Who knows, it could have been that I could have gone without gloves and not been stung. Many beekeepers forego gloves. And if they got stung a few times on the hands, no big deal. I’m certainly not to that level. Probably never will be.
Paul and I ended up talking about lawn care a little later that evening. I told him that I had driven by my old house and noticed that the plum tree we planted had died. We wondered why. Was it just natural causes (they don’t live long), or perhaps the effects of last summer? Paul is paying someone to mow his yard, as he is recovering from surgery. I told him about how my landscaping really suffered when I paid ol’ Hank to mow the lawn. He did a great job mowing, but that’s all he did. And since I no longer made the weekly rounds around the house, things were starting to go poorly back then. Paul remarked that the same was happening with him now.
Constant vigilance is required for success. Whether it is bees, your lawn, your job, your marriage, or your children. Delegation is often necessary, but still requires your diligent management and followup.
Sometime soon I will look closely in this hive for the new queen. Just because she is not in the queen cage does not mean she is alive. The bees may not have accepted her and killed her. Maybe their own feral queen from a swarm cell superceded the queen I killed. I may know soon enough. But Thursday night was not the night to check. Disturb the hive as little as possible. Let the new family settle in and make their own path.
When people find out that I keep bees, they ask if it’s because of the honey. Sure it is. But it’s a lot of other things too. Subtext and subplots. Planning, reading, wood, hammers, nails, wax, suits, smokers, lifting, driving, sweat, stings, cutting, killing, extracting, melting, people, family, farming, earth, connection. It’s a few of those things. If you ever end up doing this, you will have this moment of staring into 5 gallons of golden honey in your home and feeling like the richest person in the world. I promise you.