Tag Archives: honeybees

Adventures in beekeeping

Honeybee working hollyhock with lots of pollen

Fuzzy as kittens!

I escaped the city for a few summers to work at a bee farm, some time ago. In the Honey House I delighted in watching individual bees, fuzzy and wide-eyed as kittens. As one would come trundling along the narrow path of a board edge, I would lower my face to her level at the end of her path. She would stop short and sit back on her haunches to study the new development.  After a pause, recognition would dawn and she would turn tail and flee, scurrying back the way she came.

They always seemed to be able to make out the monstrously large face of another being in my features. I was surprised that they related to their fellow creatures in a way that I haven’t noticed in other insects like moths, flies, or mosquitoes. Maybe it’s the social animal coming out in them?

Our backyard hollyhocks were humming with activity this sunny August afternoon! There must be a hive within 3 miles of our place – maybe from the Nature Centre, just down the river. Someone did the waggle dance about our place!

Honeybee on Hollyhock

Honeybee!