Portage River Farm

Friday was incredibly warm. In the afternoon, Janet called me from somewhere out in the brushy field to the front of our property. She was enjoying the nice weather and her new knee-high boots with a tromp out to the cottonwoods to see how much water was standing there. She told me that I should try to get out of work a little early to enjoy the warm day. Of course I couldn't, but I suggested that we take a walk around the farm when I got home.

Shortly after I finally managed to arrive, Janet, Aidan and I headed out for a stroll. We talked about our plans. I showed them where I wanted to build the barn, the woodshop and the chicken coop. We talked about the berry patch location, where the orchard would go, how much of the field we would try to get plowed up this year. All in all, it was a great little tour and long overdue.

One portion of our walk took us up the driveway past the beehive. My eyes happened to detect a familiar motion where none should have been. I swerved away from the others to investigate and discovered a cloud of bees at the front of our hive, busily coming and going as they did all last summer. The problem is that Aidan and I had discovered that the bees had all died in the late fall!

My mind cast around for an explanation for what I was seeing. I briefly entertained the thought that our poor little hive had somehow survived and was now stirring itself into action again. I recalled that only this morning I had mailed off a check to the local beekeepers association for the purchase of a new 3lb package of bees. I thought, "Oh great, now what am I going to do? I'm going to have to come up with a second hive for the new bees before they arrive since our existing hive isn't empty afterall!"

Then the other side of my mind began to recall how very dead the bees had looked when I had last checked them. I leaned down and took a close look at the bees that were pouring in and out of the hive. They were actually a mix of bees. Some appeared to be the usual domesticated Italian honeybees but others were much darker in color. Those darker bees were probably from a wild hive somewhere nearby.

Then it clicked. We were being robbed! I had left the honey in the combs assuming that it would be fine in the freezing weather. I had been planning to extract what I could of it before installing my new package bees when they arrived in April. Now that the weather had suddenly warmed up, every bee in the neighborhood was out to steal our honey!

Since the sun was setting, I knew the bees would soon have to return to their own hives. I left them to have their fun at our expense for a short while longer as we continued our farm tour. I even managed to forget about the crime that was being committed for a while as Aidan capered along telling me about his day.

Around 11pm this evening I headed out to the hive with my wheelbarrow and flashlight. I probably looked a bit like a thief myself. After knocking on the hive and receiving no buzzing in reply, I opened it up and peered inside. The vast majority of the honey was intact and the hive was otherwise empty. I loaded the whole heavy thing up, wheeled it ponderously around to the back of the house and shoved it into the basement door where the bees would never find it.

In the morning, Aidan and I will uncap the comb, spin out the honey and package it up in bottles. In the meantime, I am going to wander off to bed, all the while doing my best to shove the thought out of my mind of the hive somehow raising itself from the dead yet again only to find itself locked in my basement!