It's a bee hive of activity ....

Yesterday, a friend of ours, Dennis, who is not only a farmer here on Cape Breton, but also a bee keeper, called to ask if we would be willing to have some bees on our property for a couple of weeks! Well we didn't know exactly what we were in for did we! He arrived late in the day, in the worst downpour, with 6 hives. He unloaded them from the trailer and positioned them not far from the house, facing into a small meadow area! They like to face west! Apparently each hive houses 40,000 bees.....that means there are 240,000 bees buzzing around our front yard!

He needs to quarantine them, after being at a blueberry farm somewhere else on the island! The fear is that they might have picked up the varroa mite - which would be really bad. Apparently Cape Breton Island can boast to being one of the few places in the world.....IN THE WORLD.....that doesn't have this problem, and they want to keep it that way. He'll leave them here for a couple of weeks, check on the regularly to see what's going on in the hive.

I spent a little while out there taking photographs and the buzzing was quite loud. Lots of them foraging in and around the hives.....and it was such an amazing thing to watch. It wasn't the fear of being stung that drove me back inside, but the large clusters of black fly that surrounded me! Dennis gave us the Coles version of beekeeping, and i immediately said, i want to do that.....but it's not as easy as just buying a few bee hives! there is a pretty in depth apprenticeship, followed by a mentor ship....he also said that the first thing you have to be able to do is hold a handful of bees, while they sting you, without freaking out! I might have to rethink my bee keeping desires! but i am so intrigued that i do want to find out more.

Here's just a bit about how they work.Honey Bees.

In other news...it was a pretty decent day at market! Our lovely wwoofers, Tings and Ciaran leave us tomorrow morning - it will be sad to see them go!