It was inevitable. I knew it would happen. I just didn’t think it would happen like it did. That’s right, I got stung by one of my beautiful bees. I was all dressed up like normal and visiting the ladies to make sure all was good and everyone was happy yesterday and that is when it happened. Were you wearing protective clothing? Of course. I was wearing long socks, boots, pants and my bee jacket with attached hood and gloves. I had finished with the first hive and had moved on to the second. I was looking in the bottom box at all of the wonderful drawn out comb and beautiful bees doing all of their wonderful work. And then BAM!!!! I didn’t even see it coming! Why? Because I got stung ON MY THIGH! Yes, on my thigh just above my knee right through my pants. That was one ticked off bee! I walked away a moment so I could try to lower the amount of alarm pheromone that was right at the hive and calm myself down. Then I went back and I looked at one more frame (after a bit of smoke into the hive) and put the second box back on the top and proceeded to look in there where they were much calmer. It was a successful, albeit shorter inspection overall. And, I am still not allergic to bee stings. And I finally got it over with. You know you alway dread that “first” injury of some sort that you know will come. The first bicycle wreck, the first fall on skates or skis, the first softball/baseball to the head, the first day of school, the first broken bone when you fall out of tree, the first belly flop that really smacks, the first truly invasive doctor’s appointment, the first stair you trip up. You get it. It happens and then you move on. Unless of course you are allergic to bee stings and really, that would be horrible. Just so you know, I didn’t cry and I didn’t even use a lot of cuss words. Just one and it’s a pretty long one, but one nonetheless. I am perfectly fine, really. No need for cards or flowers or anything. It was just a bee sting. Which hurt. A lot.
Did you know that Zucchini plants are very prickly? That means you shouldn’t grab a stalk or leaf to pull it out or move it with your bare hands. So are cucumbers. They are the porcupines of the produce world. So, don’t try to take a cucumber off the vine with your bare hands. Yes, these are examples of learning by doing. Did you know they make gloves just for gardening? I actually have several pairs of them. I wear gloves while working with my bees. It seems natural to use gardening gloves while WORKING IN THE GARDEN! So, I make sure I always wear my gloves whilst working with the garden produce, which by the way, is going gang busters! We are just about at the tail end of the lettuce season and my lettuce plants are starting to flower, so it will be time to till those in and plant something new. I would love to tell you that my Swiss Chard is about done but I can’t tell because it keeps being eaten. Yesterday I had three plants left that had beautiful leaves that I was going to harvest today. But alas, they are gone. Eaten by a very flexible rabbit that has found its way into the garden despite my best attempts. Has that rabbit eaten any lettuce or spinach or kale? Nope. Not one leaf on those. The tomatoes, beans, radishes, butternut squash, melons and sweet potatoes are going crazy. Growing and growing. I love seeing our bees all over the flowering plants! Makes my heart sing a little melody! Just hoping the second round of carrots seeds will take off. Just an FYI, put the seeds in the ground at the directed depth, otherwise they won’t come up. Trust me. Oh and did you know that chickens eat prickly things like zucchini stalks and leaves and they even eat rose stems? With thorns on them. I know!
Hey, guess what? Chickens bite. They don’t just peck, they bite. Thankfully they have no teeth so it doesn’t hurt; not like a bee sting hurts, at least. But that doesn’t change the fact that they bite. I don’t know if all chickens bite and I wouldn’t want to generalize and offend any one breed of chicken, but one of my old ornery Dominique bites if you try to reach under her and get eggs. Really, it’s pretty funny. How many times have you heard, “Hey, I just got bitten by a chicken!”? How many times should I really admit this? Have I told you that getting stung by a bee hurts? Thankfully our roosters (RIP) did not have any spurs because that would really hurt if they came at you with those. I have been seeing a lot of things in my research about chickens and bees about people having their chickens in their bee yards, having bee hives in their chicken runs, and just having chickens and bees together. Pretty cool because chickens will eat the dead bees and the bugs around the hives and the bees don’t bother the chickens unless they stand in front of the hive. If they are in their flight path, they just buzz them and the chickens move away. Nifty. Our take today was 24 eggs, aren’t they purdy?
Ok, I will come full circle back to bees and here is my soapbox part of this post. Bees make all things possible. No bees=no food. I really am not exaggerating about this. That is why we have to be so careful what we put on our trees, gardens, flowers, grass, etc. Remember when you are thinking about spraying or dusting your yard with chemicals, that you are most likely feeding bees bad stuff (and other pollinators such as butterflies, moths and ladybugs). If you don’t want your pets or kids to touch or eat the stuff, don’t use it. We are at a critical time with bees, people. They are disappearing at an alarming rate. If reducing chemicals can help, do it. I know what you are thinking, I don’t have hives, my neighbors don’t have hives, how am I hurting bees somewhere else if I don’t have any in my yard and I use chemicals? Other than the fact that you really should be concerned if you don’t have any bees in your yard, the fact is that bees will travel up to two miles to forage. Just because you don’t know about hives in your area, doesn’t mean they aren’t there! The bottom line is they are good for us so let’s do what we can to make sure we don’t kill them. In fact, plant lots of flowering trees, veggies, herbs and flowers for them! When you buy flowers or trees or anything you plan to plant, make sure you read labels! A lot of the big box stores are selling plants and flowers that have already been sprayed or treated with chemicals. Do your best to get treatment free things. Just a side note, almost all bees pollinate not just honey bees, including pollen wasps, carpenter bees and bumble bees! So when you (hopefully) see them in your yard, send them love!
That’s the update from the homestead! We all bid you farewell for now!
