We are just back from a fabulous and very relaxing few weeks sailing on the West coast of Scotland.
Despite being away from our new bees, the Year of the Bee was still very much in evidence. In addition to frequently wondering how the bees were, what they were doing and how the weather was treating them we had 2 noteworthy honey bee encounters.
Black Bees on Colonsay
Whilst walking on Colonsay we stumbled across one of Andrew Abrahams' apiaries of black bees. It was a warm and sunny day and the apiary was very busy.
It was striking how many colonies he had in quite a small area. On that basis, we could probably fit far more colonies than we first imagined on our apiary.
The Bees by Laline Paull
Before we left, our next door
neighbour gave us a book and said we must read it. She was right and we both
really enjoyed The Bees by Laline Paull. Whilst there are a few liberties taken
with one or two aspects of honey bee biology, it is a very imaginative and
involving dramatisation of the life within a colony. We would thoroughly
recommend it to everybody.
