{"id":8398,"date":"2021-04-03T21:59:34","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T01:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8398"},"modified":"2021-04-15T06:46:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T10:46:08","slug":"episode-301-slight-diversion-into-bee-keeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8398","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 301 SLIGHT DIVERSION INTO BEE KEEPING"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 301      SLIGHT DIVERSION INTO BEE KEEPING…<\/div>\n

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ALAN SKEOCH<\/div>\n
APRIL 2, 2021<\/div>\n

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I was a total failure as a bee keeper.  Must have been 40 years ago that I bought a bee colony from<\/div>\n
somewhere in the United States.  I had already bought all the support technology and had<\/div>\n
even taken some beekeeping instruction from a man who I thought was a friend.  Those<\/div>\n
are the two mistakes  I  made.  1) Thinking that used bee hives and used equipment was<\/div>\n
all I needed to become  a beekeeper.  2) I thought that my instructor was a friend  Oh, yes,<\/div>\n
he knew bees.  He had several hives but he turned out not to be a friend.  His name will not<\/div>\n
be mentioned.<\/div>\n

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My package of live bees arrived in the mail and I turned them loose in my old beehives.<\/div>\n
I had  never heard  of all the diseases that afflict bees and was therefore startled to discover<\/div>\n
my bees had something that was very infectious which  I think was called Sack Brood\u2026not sure.<\/div>\n
The end result was that I had to set the hive on fire and  kill my bees lest they infect other hives.<\/div>\n
This was not a  nice experience.<\/div>\n

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The worst experience was when Marjorie phoned me at school to say my bee instructor<\/div>\n
had arrived at our house and that his intentions were not good.  In that instance I acted<\/div>\n
fast\u2026called his home\u2026did not care who was  listening.  \u201cI am  going to say this only once\u2026<\/div>\n
keep the hell away from my wife, my house,  my life.  Understand.  Or do you need more instruction!\u201d<\/div>\n

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TIME LAPSE OF 40 YEARS<\/div>\n

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WE ARE NOW BEEKEEPERS\u2026YEARS 2020 AND 2021<\/div>\n

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Our son Andrew decided to try beekeeping much in the way  I did.  Just dive into<\/div>\n
it and see how it goes   Let the bees do their work.  Bee keeping is not that simple.<\/div>\n
Like all farming, bee keeping involves careful care which means keeping an eye<\/div>\n
on the bees.<\/div>\n

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WE Have two friends who are skilled bee keepers.  Brad\u2019s bees lived  in his back<\/div>\n
yard  quite happily until they flew off in a swarm.  One queen and as many worker<\/div>\n
bees as she could persuade just buzzed off.   The remaining bees tried to maintain<\/div>\n
the home hive but for various reasons  they failed  Not Brad\u2019s fault at all.   <\/div>\n

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My other friend Russ is an active bee keeper. He cares for his bees as  intensively as<\/div>\n
a mother duck  does with her ducklings.   He does steal their honey. Carefully.  Never<\/div>\n
steals enough to starve the bees.  And in the winter months he even takes sugar<\/div>\n
syrup to his bee yard.   Russ also knows how to keep bees healthy.  There are <\/div>\n
chemicals .. medIcines the bees must have.<\/div>\n

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\u201cAndrew, maybe you and Russ should get together.  He Knows bees.\u201d<\/div>\n

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They both carefully examined Andrew\u2019s bee yard.  Andrew  built a fence around<\/div>\n
it\u2026wire fence\u2026to keep the skunks away.  He made sure the bees had a<\/div>\n
south exposure.  And nice private place on the edge of the forest.<\/div>\n
 He checks  his bees every week and his two hives of<\/div>\n
bees have survived the winter months.<\/div>\n

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Today he is preparing for the arrival of another bee colony.<\/div>\n

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Andrew is carrying a super of bees  into the farm kitchen.  It is not such a good picture because I was  not sure<\/div>\n
what kind of  reception Andrew would get with his notion that the hive should be warm beside the stove when the new bees arrive.<\/div>\n

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\u201cMom,  my new bees are arriving and they must be kept<\/div>\n
warm so Brought a welcoming bunch of bees from the bee yard.<\/div>\n
You will find them in your kitchen.  Too cold  for the new <\/div>\n
bees.   Try not to disturb them.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Marjorie is alway obliging.  The bees are now in the kitchen at the farm <\/div>\n
as I speak. <\/div>\n

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\u201cHere dad, take a slab of honeycomb.  The bees will never miss it. \u201c<\/div>\n

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\u201cAndrew I have a gift for you.  LIppincott\u2019s Farm Manual on Bee Keeping. <\/div>\n
Published in 1923 as a hard cover book based on issues of his monthly magazine<\/div>\n
copies of which  were printed from 1868 to 1914.   This is a rare book, Andrew,<\/div>\n
some copies are available on the internet but not many\u2026cost $60.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cDo your want the $60 now?\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cNo, your mother and I will expect a tub of honey now and then.”<\/div>\n

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Lippincott’s developed a series of manuals regarding agricultural production, including this volume on beekeeping. Among other things, it offers a historical look at apiculture, the practice of human harvesting of products from honey bee colonies, as well as its marketing methodology. Beekeeping has quite a history, dating back to at least 15,000 years ago. The story of J.B. Lippincott & Co. offers a look at the complexities of the publishing industry. J.B. Lippincott & Co. was an American publishing house established in 1836 by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott, which still exists today as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, which itself is an imprint of the publishing conglomerate, Wolters Kluwer, and focuses on technical journals. Initially J.B. Lippincott & Co. published Bibles and other religious materials, before expanding into fiction, almanacs, medical and other books. Later, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine was issued, from 1868-1914 and offered novels, short stories, opinion pieces and other writings. In 1978, Lippincott’s was acquired by Harper & Row, which was then acquired by Wolters Kluwer in 1990.<\/font><\/span><\/div>\n

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EPISODE 301      SLIGHT DIVERSION INTO BEE KEEPING… ALAN SKEOCH APRIL 2, 2021 I was a total failure as a bee keeper.  Must have been 40 years ago that I bought a bee colony from somewhere in the United States.  I had already bought all the support technology and had even taken some beekeeping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}