Monday, February 23, 2009

Like bees on honey

With temps in the 60s, the bees are out and hungry, but there is nothing blooming yet. I'm not counting my handful of crocuses, which could never satisfy this mob. I had some raw honey that solidified, so I smeared a hunk on the bee log. Once they found it, look out! They were slurping it up like crazy.

I also put some sugar syrup in a ceramic lid, with twigs in it to keep the bees from drowning. I filled it three times today.
If you want to see how really frenzied they were, check out this video:

But for all that frenzy, they still weren't fazed by my taking close-ups or moving the dish around. I have yet to be stung once.

7 comments:

  1. Cool, but freaky. I would be afraid to get that close.

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  2. I thought about your bees earlier today and wondered how they were...thanks for the update. Will you "harvest" (is that the right verb?) honey? Is that even possible with the kind of hive you have? Very exciting stuff.

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  3. Betts, before I started learning about bees, I would've been a lot more nervous, too. Those are some pretty excited bees there. But they're entirely focused on eating. I'm hardly even a distraction.

    Pam, they seem to be doing OK! It'll be a while before there are flowers, though, so I'm still worried about their having enough stores to survive until then. I won't be harvesting any honey from that hive. I'd have to cut the whole log open. So I'll just leave them bee, so to speak.

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  4. Ooh fantastic. Your bees look soooo lively.

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  5. You're having saved these bees is so inspiring. I love reading about them.

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  6. Thanks, mimi, db and lucy. I find them endlessly fascinating.

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