Christmas Bee Customs

"In connection with these Christmas customs there are two curious observances among the more secluded dwellers of Shakespeare's greenwood, which, though they partake of the nature of superstitions, may very well be allowed accord here. They both occur on Christmas Eve, just upon the stroke of twelve (the witching hour), when the occupants of cot or farmstead, in the one instance, troop down the rustic garden to the beehives, " to hear the bees sing their Christmas carols." The belief is that these busy insects are as pleased at the birth of a new Christmas Day as the members of the human family, and testify their mirth by singing a set of new carols for the occasion. It is certainly a pretty and poetical custom which draws the peasants into the dim garden at midnight on Christmas Eve in the simple faith that the bees are singing Christmas in."



Shakespeare's Greenwood: The Customs of the Country By George Morley 1900

thanks to Historical Honeybee

Another One Bites the Dust

I went out to the hives yesterday to give them more antibiotics and to change out the sugar water in case it had gotten moldy. I got a nice fire going in the smoker and opened up the smallest sick hive to see how they were doing. I've been sick this weekend and did not get out there as soon as I had hoped. But I think it would have been too late for this hive anyway. They were all dead. I searched through the ones lying on the screened bottom board but did not see the queen.







I took apart the hive and prepared it for the process of cleaning out the contaminated frames. Two out of five failed before the rains have even started. This is not a good way for them to go into winter.



I opened up the others and did not smell any foulbrood stink. I gave the big hive antibiotics and decided again to skip the ones that were still healthy. No need to overuse antibiotics if they are not needed. I put one of the ziplock baggies full of sugar water into the top of the big hive and poked some holes in it with my swiss army knife so they could get at it without drowning.

When hives die like this I feel so guilty that I don't know enough yet to prevent the diseases or help them in time. I really want to move them to a sunnier spot. This garden is just about warm enough in the summer but it gets really dank and cold and wet back there in winter. All the cold sinks down into that low spot and all the diseases that kill bees love that kind of environment. Peter was talking about moving them up onto his mother's side deck or onto our roof. The roof would be perfect except we would need to build a staircase to get the heavy boxes up and down. The deck is better for access but worse for safety and convenience to his mom, who would lose the use of it all together.

I consoled myself by taking some photos of the healthy bees with my new macro lens.