But now that I'm up to my chin in bees I have to be aware of so many more "ing"s.
Drifting
Capping
Robbing
Bearding
Balling
Festooning
Dwindling
Absconding
Fanning
Ripping (I wrote this down but forgot what it means)
Washboarding
Swarming
Even though it's a natural and mostly healthy event, swarming is the "ing" I fear the most.
I don't know what to call the activity shown in this picture. I wondered if there might be a mouse or some other intruder under that pile of bees. I'll never know. I did see workers dragging out drones.
5 comments:
Ohhhh. That picture gives me the creepy-crawlies.
I don't know what any of those words actually mean re. bee activity, so I have some pretty interesting images in my mind.
Like festooning--I see the little bees decorating for a 4th of July shindig or political rally.
Can you provide definitions for a couple of the words?
I heard Martha talking on her radio show yesterday about giving her bees "pollen cakes." who knew?
I think they're gearing (!) up for the Colbert and Stewart rallies.
ROFL!! I love your post, it made me smile and then laugh. I never knew there were so many -ings either. Funny! and SWARMING is my fear as well. I've already started talking about how the 2nd year is the swarming time :( I'm not looking forward to that. Lots of box rotating I guess. My neighbors will kill me if my bees swarm on their property!
I saw one of my hives with a tremendous amount of activity in front a couple of weeks ago. I was sure they were swarming, but it turns out my fears were for naught. We removed the queen excluders last Tuesday. Now I think we're at the wait and see how they do over the winter stage, although we may be feeding more before things freeze.
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