The Secret Life of Bees...

Ok, the title of the post ISN'T about the film, but you guessed that, right?

So,today is the big Lovemonger day, but someone emailed asking me to explain the "bee situation" at our city brownstone, based on yesterday's post.

Ok, so here's the short of it. We live in the city. We want to help increase the bee population and maybe get a little honey out of it. Because my landlady runs a company that focuses on green projects, we might even do a little documentary about it, highlighting the plight of honey bees. So, the bees will be famous--if we can ever get them here. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, the real point of it all is that it started as my landlady's idea. Just when you thought "crazy cat lady" sounds crazy, it's been one up-ed by "crazy bee lady." However, I think we should ALL be crazy about bees, literally and figuratively. After all, bees save our lives.

Before you stare at me all agog and start calling the number to the nearest phsychiatric ward, let me explain. I mean, you all do know that without bees pollinating everything there would be no fruit and vegetables in the world right? Of course you do. And yet, at this very instant, bees are dying off in DROVES...I cannot stress this enough. Sure, of course we say we know it, but then what can we do about it?

So, my landlady decided she will try to set up 2 hives, and encourage the community to become sort of an urban bee sanctuary. Which means, in between writing, doll making, animal watching and maybe cleaning the house, I will be beekeeping and planting wildflowers and such. All in the hope that we can save the declining bee populations....

It is this decline that is the reason we cannot get our scheduled bees this weekend..because the beeyard where we were scheduled to get them is already low because of high death rates, and of course, this never-ending winter weather is making it hard to package the poor bees.

We would try to call other beekeepers to ship from around the country, but they too, are sold out or oversold--because of decreasing bee populations, difficult bee-rearing weather and increased interest in beekeeping (which is great--more bees out in the world--but not such good news for us!).

So right now, we are waiting for our middle-man (wow, it all sounds so high end, even illicit) to make a second trip down to Georgia and HOPE its sometime by May, because right NOW, everything is in bloom and waiting for it's pollen to be collected! DOH!

I could go more into beekeeping, but it is quite an education. I think many people think you can dump a whole heapin' bunch of bees and they'll just do their thing. It's a bit more complicated than that--like all "livestock"--they need food when it's low, warmth, room in their homes, and general comfortable quarters. Unlike other livestock--they can, and will, make a mad dash for it if you can't make their lives happy and secure.

So, instead of Lovemongering, here are a few links that might interest you if you want to start your own "bee sanctuary"---you are saving a whole lot of little lives, and your own, as well:

This website has a pretty good overview of Beekeeping:
http://www.gobeekeeping.com/lesson_one.htm

Long Lane Honey Farm's Beekeeping Blog (yes, they advertise alot of their product, but they have great advice here:
http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com/

If you live in the SouthEast and are interested in the NATIVE bees (yes, they do exist), here's a wordy article on conserving them:
http://www.ent.uga.edu/Bees/bee_pubs/conservation/bee_conservation.htm

I love this blog! She shows you how to make the perfect "Bee Garden" for bees. Even if you can't raise bees, you can help out with your own bee sanctuary:
http://melissa-majora.blogspot.com/

And finally, here is a plant list for bees--you can get a few pots of these for your tiny backyard or grow them on your acreage:
http://gardening.about.com/od/attractingwildlife/a/Bee_Plants_2.htm

Until next time, Friends!