Farmers’ Market: The bees’ knees
Becoming the owner of an apiary will forever change the experience of walking the family dog. No longer are you just a somnambulistic dope-on-a-rope, waiting with varying degrees of patience for Fido to select exactly the right spot … she stops, she sniffs, she circles, she balks. She moves on as you trail along in her wake, helplessly linked to her indecision. ”If you would tell me what you are looking for, I would help you look. Just pee already!”
Those are the cold or rainy days. On the better days, you sip your coffee from a travel mug and wander to elsewhere in your mind as you start and stop, start and stop, start and stop. Once you get your first hive, however, delays along a quiet lane turn into endless monitoring of nectar and pollen sources instead … ”The red clover is holding up so far. Do bees use vetch? I hope the owner of that field doesn’t mow down all that goldenrod. Oh, look. There’s a bee-girl out and about already this morning. Her little panniers are packed tight … doesn’t look like the pollen in the hive. New source!”
It doesn’t stop until the frost has wiped out absolutely everything the bees might be able to utilize and “the girls” form a cluster in the middle of their hive, quivering their wings to generate body heat to protect their queen through the winter months. Then you move on to worrying about the adequacy of their supplies and if/when you should start to supplement them with pollen, honey, or sugar syrup.
To own an apiary is to be endlessly fascinated by the combination of instinct, skill, diligence, and miracle that is a bee hive.
Steve Miller of Westmanland has been enthralled by these tiny, essential creatures since the 1970s; they have been part of his farm and part of his life ever since. The number of hives, the focus of production (honey, pollination, queens, wax, etc.), and the time available to invest in this branch of his multifaceted business enterprise has changed over time, growing, then shrinking, and now growing again. He reports that this has been a good year, honey-wise, and the hives, scattered in different locations around Westmanland and New Sweden, seem to be thriving.
This is good news, not just for Steve and his wife Barbara, but for the rest of us as well. He has quart jars of golden honey, honey butter flavored with cinnamon or ginger, and the end product of his bees’ pollination activities, round ripe dark blueberries fresh from his bushes, all for sale. Their customers at the Presque Isle Farmers Market can treat themselves to wonderful flavors over breakfast, dessert, or snack while they remember the hard-working bee and her contribution to the meal.
Next week … a cloud on the horizon for bees and their customers, which turns out to be all of us.
Editor’s note: This weekly column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information or to join, contact their secretary/treasurer Steve Miller of Westmanland at 896-5860 or via e-mail at beetree@xpressamerica.net.
