14th September 2008 : Making a Bee Line...
Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 04:08PM There is a four o’clock flower (so nicknamed by us because its flowers don’t open until the afternoon - its real name is abutilon mauritanium) which has self-seeded next to the baobab tree by our front door, and thanks to the vegetation near our house being watered regularly, it’s been growing at a rate of knots. It’s been blossoming for a couple of weeks now, and the bees are delighted, waiting each day for the flowers to unfurl so that they can fit inside to sip the sweet nectar. There are several different types of bees feeding on the flowers, including honey bees.
A honey bee making the most of having a flower all to itself
Sometimes it’s tricky when there’s more than one contender for a flower
Here’s a different kind of bee altogether
Another bee with a flower all to itself
The bees have to wait until the flower has unfurled enough to let them in
You can see the full pollen sacs on the bee’s back legs – testament to the vital role bees play all over the world by pollinating not just flowers, but food crops too
Sweet rewards await the patient bees…While we’re on the subject of bees, it’s probably a good time to tell you we checked our beehives in August, to see whether there is any honey yet. (You’ll remember we had a delicious honey harvest back in March.)
Is this the latest fashion my husband is modeling? Better that than bee stings, I suppose!
Bernard, one of the guys who used to work for us, is from the local Wakamba tribe, who are renowned as honey hunters, so he knows how to harvest honey from these traditional beehives, which are made from hollowed out logs, with a lid attached either end.
The first step is to smoke out the bees, which makes them docile and less enthusiastic about stinging us! Below, you can see some of the swarm crawling around lethargically on the beehive lid.
The first hive we checked had healthy combs but no honey in them yet, so Bernard cleaned out the old comb which had fallen to the floor of the hive and then closed it up again (below). We’ll have to wait another month or so for that one.
We decided to check another hive and again, after giving the bees a dose of smoke to calm them down, we saw there was lots of comb but no honey yet – it’s just too early…we’ll have to come back next month.
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Reader Comments (5)
Hi Tanya,
great to see those beehives and bees working. Here in Europe they are an endangered species...so we have to take care of them....
Ian looks very charming by the way :-) !
Can't wait to see "your" genets in the spotlights. Amazing that they come in to the house like that.
Take care !
Audrey
Many stings and bites take place during the fall
months as the temperature of the days decrease. Reason being, bees, wasps and
insects in general are cold blooded and they linger around people and pets in order
to absorb body heat, therefore increasing the chances of getting stung or bitten.
Last week, I witnessed a 4 year old girl with her hand and forearm swollen
to her elbow, from a wasp sting that she received to her fingertip the day
before. The sight of her hand and arm brought tears to my eyes because I knew
that if she had had
Baker's Venom Cleanser available when she was stung, none of her discomfort
would have elevated to that extreme point of swelling and discomfort.
Our web site www.BeeStingCure.com
has under gone some new additions worth taking a look at. Old
news commentary video footage from 1988 has been added to
YouTube.com/BeeStingCure
and the link is available at our site. Our formula also works to stop the itch
of the dreaded Itch Mite!
That is amazing. The photos are fantastic. To have your own honey is priceless.
enjoy your day. Suzy
Wow - these bee shots are exceptional!
I think it brings great awareness too, to what is happening to the bee population in the world.
Great job!
Hello to you all, Audrey, Brad, Suzy and Evita - and thanks for stopping by to catch up with our bees! Indeed, as you say Suzy, it's special to have our very own honey is amazing (when people don't steal it from us!)
Apologies for being absent from here recently - my workload is such that I cannot find much time to blog at the moment, which is driving me a little crazy as I have so much to tell you all, and about a million photos to share with you (slight exaggeration, I know, but you get the picture...)
Take care and see you soon,
Tanya