Day-dream believer

As long as this afternoon's weather doesn't get too bumpy, we're scheduled to go and try on some bee keeping attire later, primarily veils and/or helmets and/or hats. Finally, it looks as though our schedules and priorities are going to align so we can attend a Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association meeting next week. There's a to be a demonstration of "Mite check, queen marking, brood inspection." Veils are required to go into the bee yard. Three of us completed the weekend beekeeping instructions last Autumn but have been hard-pressed to follow up with any "hands on" experience. The plan is to have one, maybe two, hives in place next year. Since we've fretted (one of the things we do best) in the past about hives and bears, it was encouraging to see the electric fence arrancement around the hives at Audubon Center of the North Woods.

Audubon Center of the North Woods apiary    © harrington

Even someone as unhandy as I should be able to arrange an electric fence as functional as the one in the picture. I think a trip back up to the "North Woods" to see if the local beekeeper has any comments about how effective the fence is might be worthwhile. With luck, a few years from now we may be able to sell honey and/or beeswax (candles?) at local farmers' markets. This whole beekeeping thing is another reason to follow Gary Snyder's advice in "For the Children."

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

And, since it's one of my favorite poems, and today's posting offers a near perfect fit for it, here's what Emily Dickinson, another New Englander, says about bees, prairies and clover:

To make a prairie (1755)

Emily Dickinson, 1830 - 1886 

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

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