Hymenoptera
Our yards sounded with a buzz.
The four winged creatures below
And above. From ants to wasps
And of course honey bees too.
If you didn’t disturb them they would
Not disturb you! With the Vernal
Equinox the seasons changed
Spring had sprung and the flowers were
Blooming causing insects to engage.
As pollen was released the bugs
Flew here and there. A few of us
Are allergic and we lamented
This time and called it bad air. But the
Weather was mild with temperatures
We could enjoy. Soon we’d see
Lepidoptera and the butterfly nets
The children would employ! As we
Moved towards Summer and the
Heat that is hard to bear, we enjoyed the
Spring weather we got out and went
Somewhere!
Clarence G. Underwood
Esparto, California
Thank You!
Thank you all at ABJ & Dadant & Sons.
Great magazine!
Great articles!
Great pictures!
Great information!
God bless America!
God bless you all!
God bless the Bees!
Ignacio Sanchez
Hallandale, Florida
Taking Care of God’s Garden
Aloha from Paradise, we enjoy reading ABJ. Our family has been caring for honey bees since before the French Revolution and for most of our 78 years on the planet we have been gardeners and beekeepers taking care of our portion of God’s Garden.
We are blessed to live in Hawaii. It is 78° now, had an inch of rain yesterday and the bees are bringing in lots of coconut and haole koa pollen and nectar.
Harvested honey yesterday from a hive that moved into an empty hive body this spring. We distribute honey in glass pint jars to our family, friends and whoever wants pure raw natural real honey. We do not use any chemicals, artificial feed, or repellents. We do not have any mites or diseases. Small hive beetles are smashed and we moved as far away from the corn companies as possible after losing 25 colonies to Sevin sprayed on tasseling corn adjacent to our apiary (less than 100 yards).
In our lifetime we rescued over 100 colonies that people did not want in their homes, dog houses, trees, barrels, swarms, in generators. We collected enough bees to keep us busy building hives and all the work that goes with outyards, sheds, processing honey, delivering, etc. You know what beekeeping is all about; it’s endless, endless enjoyment, being outdoors, being in charge of your life and taking care of a lot of living, feeling creatures. It’s nice to love and be loved.
Our feeling about beekeepers’ problems of pests and diseases is the result of feeding artificial feeds, sugars, pollen substitutes, chemicals, medications, and the reduction of flowering plants, and the increased use of pesticides has weakened and killed many bees.
It is very interesting to read about honey adulteration, fraudulent transshipping of foreign honey and the imprisonment of dishonest honey packers. We help the bees make and distribute real honey.
Hope you are staying healthy because that is the real bottom line.
David Maki
Kekaha, Hawaii
Mann Lake (Kelley) Field Day a success
When a locally severe COVID-19 outbreak subsided, Mann Lake in Kentucky was able to schedule a customer appreciation/field day for October 23 at the former Kelleybees location in Leitchfield.
Short notice dictated by local restrictions and conflicting events, combined with pressure from the dwindling number of Saturdays with nice weather, kept the RSVPs down to 145 with an estimated attendance of 125.
Many beekeepers had expressed a desire to attend but last-minute winter preparations in the bee yard prevented them from ….
