A Case of the Hives

I have something of a bull-headed streak. Probably stems from being born in the year of the ox, but if I get something in my mind that I would like to do, or imagine myself doing, it tends to eventually happen.  That is just the way that I have always been and likely always will be- sometimes to my benefit, sometimes to my detriment, and very often to the consternation of my husband, but at least I am consistent.  I see things in my head that just seem right and if I feel strongly enough about them, then Fate seem to help me out on many occasions - such is the case of the hives.

Over a year ago I mentioned that it would be nice to get some bee hives and start collecting honey.  We looked at trying to find some used hives from people that were getting out of it, but they are somewhat hard to come by.  We checked into ordering some from a catalog, but it just never quite seemed to be the right time for it, they were too expensive, or both....we shuffled our feet.

Then I mentioned it to one of my friends at work who also happens to be a mail carrier.  Let me digress here for just a minute and say, if you ever need to know something about the neighborhood that you live in.....ask a mail carrier!  I am constantly amazed at the amount of information that they carry around in their brains that has been accumulated from years of delivering mail to the same houses.  I once had a stray dog show up and managed to find his home simply by asking the mail carrier.  After describing the dog to him he said, "oh yeah! That's Toby. He lives at such and so address.  Noticed he wasn't there today to bark at me when I dropped off the mail.  The owner won't be home though until sometime after 6 pm because he works in town."  Then, thirty minutes after talking to the mail man, someone drives up to get the dog because the mail man had called the owner and the owner had sent his cousin out to retrieve the dog.  Wow!  Seriously, we should make better use of these people and pay them more for their abilities.  Anyway, I happened to mention to my co-worker/mail carrier that we were looking for bee hives to get us started.  She paused for a minute and then said, "You know, I think Hans used to have bees out at his place.  I have delivered supplies to him in the past."  And from there, as all good grapevines go, I tracked down the person to contact about Hans's used bee hives.

Contacted......No response.

Tried again......No response.

And then, Fate stepped in, as it often does.  Hans had been rather ill for quite some time and then rather suddenly passed away.  As always happens when people pass away, there is the process of sorting out all the stuff of their life and deciding what to do with it.  Someone in the group remembered that I had been looking for bee hives and called my office. 

But I was on vacation and out of range to be called.

My very astute assistant, however, knew that I was looking for hives and made the deal for me, and picked them up herself. The hives, beekeeping suits, a smoker, a honey centrifuge, and enough books to keep me happily busy all winter long.

And so, we have hives - two full hives to be exact and all the accoutrements  They will need a little cleaning and fixing here and there, but they are hives none-the-less.  Next up.....bees.

 Most of the texts on the subject recommend getting to know the local bee keepers, so I hopped on the Internet to see what I could find.  Eastern Iowa Beekeepers Association proved local and rich in information.  Shot off an e-mail to the person in charge and within an hour or so was notified that the following day they were due to have one of their meetings.  They only have four meetings per year - one for each of the seasons - and a day or two later and I would have missed it entirely.  Again, Fate seemed to step in and see me through.

I am not one to like going to meetings, especially meetings in which I know absolutely no one, but I felt compelled to tackle this one. When Fate had handed me so much all ready it seemed like a snub to not make the effort at going to the meeting.  I came in slightly late and sat in the back of the meeting room.  There were approximately 30 people there, most of whom were somewhere in their late 60s.  The main topic of conversation was to highlight some of the findings that had been discussed at the state wide bee keepers convention that had taken place in November.  Many of their facts were somewhat worrisome.....There used to be 6 million bee keepers in the U.S and now it is down to roughly 2 million.  Well over half of all the honey in the U.S. is imported from oversees.  Over half of the hives in the U.S.  have been dying over the winter- unable to produce enough honey to support themselves.  Many bee keepers are not even able to collect honey from the hives because the bees are having a hard time making enough.  Colony Collapse Disorder is all too prevalent and no one, as yet, has a good handle on why.  It wasn't encouraging information, and I found myself sitting there thinking that maybe this is a little more than I might be up for this spring. 

One of the first things that I asked a few people was, "where do you get your bees" and several of them gave me different names of companies that sell Queens and a few pounds of bees.  One bee keeper swore by a company out of Texas that he buys bees from every year, and then it dawned on me to ask why he had to buy bees all the time.  He was having about 70% die off each year, and I thought 'well, if these bees are so great why are they dying off?'.....on to the next person.

Finally, I worked my way forward in the crowd to talk to Floyd - he had been one of the speakers that had gone to the convention and had given much of the information on what had been discussed and some of his own tips for helping hives to make it through the winter.  A quiet, soft spoken man, probably more comfortable in the company of bees than he is around people, but he was happy enough to answer my questions.  I knew that maybe, once again, Fate had thrown the right person into my path when I asked him the standard question, "where do you buy your bees" and he looked a me with a slight smile and said, " I haven't bought bees in over 9 years.  I have nucs (short for nucleus) that I raise up"  So, of course my second question was, "Do you ever sell those nucs?"  to which his response was "Yeah.  I will have 30 of them to sell come this spring."

My psyche, at this point, heaved a huge sigh of relief - here was a person who knew what he was doing and apparently did it well since he had several dozens of bee hives all over the county and in my local area.  In fact, he suspected that I was probably driving right by several of them on a daily basis.  Fate has a funny way of eventually making things happen.  I like to think that if I am open to Fate and the possibilities that come with it, and then bull-headed enough to stick it out, my plans eventually come to fruition in most cases- not always, but I have found that even failing miserably at something has always served to teach me something as well.  You never know just when Fate will reach out a hand and help you along, however, it is my belief that most people are simply to scared to grab hold and run with it.  I very much agree with the Serendipity sentiment that "life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences...But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan....that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", what we currently refer to as destiny."
Floyd and I talked a little more about various start up tips and then I asked him when he starts checking his hives in the spring...."First week in April.  Give me a call and you can tag along."

Tag along I will.  See you in April, Floyd.