Beekeeping Buzz Grows in Lee County

My best bee story took place in Zanzibar. Anyone who goes to Tanzania really misses out on the totality of the journey by eliding Zanzibar from the itinerary. Freddie Mercury of Queen was from Zanzibar, and you see not infrequently people with the same unique nose/hard palate/mandible configuration that made him recognizable. Its culture is a frappe of prior zeitgeists, so many cultures having passed through, settling or dominating, over centuries.
 
(Oops, I hear Emerson telling me "Swaim, don't forget to say what it is that you have to say." Yes, yes. Quite right.)
 
I bought a big sticky jar of an especially pleasant thick dark honey made locally. I went to an outdoor patio from breakfast on the beach the next morning, and set upon trying to consume the honey on bread. Initially, I noticed a couple of unanticipated rumbling fly-bys by bees, but the wind shifted and I ignored them. Soon, however, bees were lighting on the table, landing on the honey jar and irritating other people with taunting buzzes around their table en route to mine.
 
I sealed the honey jar closed and wrapped it in a cloth napkin from the table, but Pandora had left the jar. A squadron of serving people surrounding my table and began swooshing towels in the air to drive away the bees. Evidently some craziness pheromone was in the air, however, and the bees were oblivious.
 
It reached a tipping point when I was covered with bees and writhing like Io, gadfly-tormented, in fright. I turned and ran back inside the hotel, were several large doors giving access to the breakfast bar were being closed. I looked back at the table in horror and saw a tornadiform swirl of bees going 20-30 feet in the air; it looked like some CGI-graphic from a killer bee B film.
 
Eventually someone got on a megaphone, and ordered the evacuation of the entire patio (about 150 guests) in several languages. I skulked off to my room, fearing a giant bolus of social opprobrium was about to come my way from the hotel manager or from enraged guests.
 
A P.S. to this trip was that I was taking mefloquine for malaria prophylaxis. There was a surreal quality to the bee event because of serious sleep interruption by "psychotic" nightmares caused by the mefloquine. Mefloquine has been "black-boxed" now because of this, and is rarely used. If I fell asleep, I had the most terrifying visions of persecution, blood-letting, and being hacked to bits that I think it is possible for a mind to generate. Apparently, some veterans are now claiming that use of that drug permanently damaged their psyches, and that they have acid-like flashbacks of the nightmares. I doubt these allegations. I just always take a big bottle of doxycycline wherever I travel---very very versatile antibiotic, and completely effective against malaria.

Hepatitis C is a vast public health problem, 6 times more common than HIV, and probably a more miserable disease.
 
In Houston, however, I had a patient who insisted that he had cured himself of HCV, acquired from prior cocaine-snorting with straw sharing, with therapeutic bee stings 7-8 times per day. He had his own apiary.
 
Possibly, he was correct. Even by virus detection methods more sensitive than PCR, no virus was detectible. The spontaneous clearance rate is only about 15%. I did a biopsy of his liver (I swear I can do it and patients feel NOTHING...they don't even know when I have completed it), and could see some residua consistent with prior virus-mediated damage, but with no current virus replicative activity.
 
At the time, histamine (which bee stings provoke) release had some good underpinnings scientifially as a possible HCV therapy, and I told him please, please, please, find your old medical records that show you had detectible HCV in your blood, and this will go straight to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nick likes bees and those who like bees.  However, Nick has been stung about a dozen times in his life from bees and their distant and diffecient cousins the hornet, and of course the wasp.  Bees however, seem to be a high brow insect, something about them intrigues Nick to no end, the outfit I guess, they are dressed a bit like Mr. Peanut, a distinguished look.  Nick is of course, as all of you know by now a renowned photographer and last year shot some macro shots of bees covered in pollen.  One bee's face was covered with yellow powdered pollen, he looked like al pacino in the final scene of scarface.  Nick, though he's been wrongfully attacked my melicious bees in the past, will always protect the bees and never kill them, unless of course they are antisemetic bees muttering antijewish buzzeries as they fly by.  Good day.

mark... your story about the bees of Zanzibar!  Great!  I had to read it out loud to my son, who chuckled just as I did....  true stories always are more bizarre than the stale formulae of fiction -- as you have again shown!

Most of my run-ins as a kid were not with bees, but with yellow jackets (unknown in Texas to the best of my knowledge, but common in New Jersey...).  In fairness, as kids we did sometimes stick marbles or stones into the yellow jacket tunnels to trap them underground.  This of course had nothing to do with us getting stung ;-)  

Dear is bought the honey that is licked off of the thorn.  Anonymous, N. Europe, 14th c.   Also Penn the chicken curry was fantastic but I couldn't find the side dish link;  What was  Mr. Peterman's recipe? I remember trapping  bumblebees in bluebells in the islands of south-east Alaska to make them buzz as a horrid child. . .

 

 

All these spirited movements and such great contests as these will be contained and quieted down by the throwing of a little dust.

Virgil  (70 - 19 BC)

Roman poet
Referring to the battle of the bees.

Georgics, 29 BC.

Spent time, yesterday, in the kitchen putting together a vegan version of a famous French dish. Mine is called pot au feu-d.

The number thirty nine caught my ear from the radio, then again, from a neighbor, speaking loudly outside, then, again. It seemed to be trying to get my attention.

I dug back a few days at the Eye where Gary24kt had used it in a nice salute to his marriage and wife.

Then, and this is where it gets interesting, I checked the randomly generated numbers on a Power Ball ticket I had bought and there it was- power ball #39.

You must have wondered, as had I, what it feels like? Two hundred million dollars.

 two hundred million dollars?  i think i would feel like smiling?

honey bee

Class
Insecta

Order
Hymenoptera

Family
Apidae

Names
Reproductive female: queen

 
non-reproductive female: worker

 
male: drone

Range
All continents except Antarctica.

Habitat
Open woodland, grasslands, and forests.

Size
Queen: 16 to 20 mm (0.63 to 0.79 in).

 
Worker: 10 to 15 mm (0.39 to 0.59 in).

 
Drone: 14 to 18 mm (0.55 to 0.71 in).

Feeding Habits
Honey bees are herbivores; they eat nectar and honey. Larvae eat pollen and royal jelly, which is secreted by worker bees.

Offspring
The queen bee lays all of the eggs for her hive-sometimes more than 1500 a day. The eggs, laid in the cells of the honeycomb, hatch in three days.

Life Span
Queen bees live for one to three years, while workers and drones live for about five weeks.

Did You Know
A healthy bee colony can have as many as 100,000 bees.

 
Worker bees communicate with a dance, indicating the distance to and direction of a nectar source.

 
The drone's only function is to mate with the queen.

 
Worker bees maintain the temperature of the hive by beating their wings.

 
Only worker bees can produce the wax used to build the hive.

Stoney, I am sure that every woman you ever met after winning would tell you , regardless of her age, "Two hundred million dollars isn't old at all."  And, lest someone think I am picking on ladies, do note above in Cuuckoo's informative post, who wears the pants in the hive.  One wonders why there was never a Batman villainess called the Queen Bee.

was pondering stoney's question, and after the smiling would follow a speedy decline.  no thank you!  quite content being a worker bee of sorts.  the responsibility of the queen's having to constantly replenish the work force, is tiresome at the least, at this point in the journey.
 
back to the porch! 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21061974

Oh yeah, even when a number, suggested obliquely by-let's say- a village brother, and then heard to be ringing though the air, is found to have been selected on your computer generated ticket, it doesn't mean beans unless another computer selects it as a winner. It didn't.

Furthermore, it has come to my attention that hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more, buy tickets and they might be sold as well at other stores.

It's crazy, I know, but some people NEVER win.

Willie,
I mumbled at a checkout: "Hmm, A winner." And it was, ten bucks on a scratch-off. The register girl thinking I had meant the big lottery, went stiff and pale for a second until realizing what was going on.

In a husky voice, the girl admitted: "My God, I cannot believe how good you looked there for a moment!"

Stoney ( and by the way, I just planted 25 daylilies, plus transplanting 3 more- 29 is a prime number, ooops, I CAN add. 28 might be significant, too. )  ANYWAY, it sounds as if she came mighty close to being one more of those million naked stories we always hear about in the city...

Willie,

Still, it is nice to know that the only thing standing between me and being an absolute God to checkout girls everywhere is a hundred million or so.

Hey Hol~ The Peterman "side dish" was actually an ad for 20% off at JPeterman... I don't see it on the recipe link today, but earlier I found it on the Chicago Tribune site.  I had the folding step ladder on my wish list, and this discovery was enough to take it from wish to send! Glad to hear the Curry recipe is as good as it sounds.  I just got back from the market with all the ingredients for a double recipe.

Stoney, I'm looking for a man with a hundred million AND a heart condition. <wink> 

the echo of e.e. cummings resonates with ya'lls eclectic conversations.  what kind of daylilies, if that's not to personal?
 
 
the wind is a Lady with
bright slender eyes(who
 
moves)at sunset
and who--touches--the
hills without any reason
 
(i have spoken with this
indubitable and green person "Are
You the wind?" "Yes" "why do you touch flowers
as if they were unalive, as
 
if They were ideas?" "because,sir
things which in my mind blossom will
stumble beneath a clumsiest disguise,appear
capable of fragility and indecision
 
--do not suppose these
without any reason and otherwise
roses and mountains
different from the i am who wanders
 
imminently across the renewed world"
to me said the)wind being A lady in a green
dress,who'touches:the fields
(at sunset)

Penn~

I'm half way to being your dream guy. Unfortunately, it isn't the wealth half.

And speaking of conforming to criteria, I considered for a moment, Peterman's "Southern Gentleman Suit," before realizing that I came up short on both counts. 

Thanks for raising the tone of things, Cuuckoo, These were "lost tag specials" from some nice people called Smokey's Gardens in Ashley, IN, wherever that may be. I bought 50 Stella D'oro ones and 50 ( 2 lots of 25) lost tag specials.  Being one of those people whose tastes are directly connected to their wallets AND an appreciator of randomness, I like buying the mixed lots and seeing what comes up. They tend to be big hardy plants.  Otherwise, I have no objection to the common orange  "riverbank red" type.  The Clemson Extension  folks suggest that they ( the orange horde) are too hardy and prolific for most home landscapes, but I disagree- anyway, my home landscape can stand them...   A couple of years back I bought a vast lot of AZTEC GOLD from someone. Those plants, while still reappearing, have not yet matured sufficiently to bloom, but maybe this year will be their year.  They went into the ground and came back the next year and this is the year after that.  If I was able to delay gratification, I'd be a football fan. ... I do believe in the long view, but as Unhinged is probably thinking, In the Long Run, We're All Dead.

Oh! The 20% off ad was just back on the Thai Curry recipe link.    .   .    .   .    .    .  Ah Stoney, I'd bet good money you are a gentleman  (put Mrs Stoney on)    .   .    .    .   the only people with heart conditions should be nearing the century mark....dammit!  

being well read, does not necessarily lend one to write well enough to be read well....uh? any ways...
 
i'm a fan of day lilies!!one of my favorites, but as was suggestion by your extension people, here on the river, hybrids are good for a season or two, but by pollination i thought, always reverted to the orange horde....they are prolific in the sandy loam river bottoms.  heavy in hard woods keeps things shady too.

i enjoy reading everyones comments. especially on days as these.
   
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=72121&MR=1

Stoney, any commercial genealogist knows a reasonable inference is better than an unpleasing certainty. Who is to say this is not your kinsman?     http://video.library.gatech.edu/cgi-bin/Griffin/griffin.pl?showpic=GP343&lastpicnum=280&search=&fieldtype=key&dispic=yes    Certainly this would make you southern enough for any sartorial selection you might desire.

Thanks Willie, looks like a nice man. cuukoo1, http://www.google.com/ig#max100 The only difference is: We feel blessed over it. It is all relative.

a deserted (important) hornets nest dangles from some fishing line on the covered porch portion of my deck.  the nest was purchased for 10$ at a flea market several years back.  every year i coat it lightly in spray net or something light to keep the moisture out.  it has proven to me that all wasp, bees and most importantly dirt dobbers observe and respect the territorial instinct. 
 
we had dirt dobbers all over the place, they're none stingers(you'd never know that though when my manly 6'5"  220 pound husband, turns into a girly man when one nears).  the dobbers remove the spiders (the things that make me the real girly one) and store them in their little adobe homes.  makes for quite a mess, when he's squealing at the dirt dobber and i'm squealing cause he's squealing, dogs barking, cats crying, feathers flying everywhere.
 
any way, haven't had a wasp or bee nor dobber within 20' of that nest since it was hung. 

Dear Penn, Thanks for the advise, of course I feel like the village idiot.  Try an  extra dose of dark sesame oil and some toasted sesame seeds at the very last in the curry.  Thanks again Hol 

stoney, my soul loves the rain and what it brings for the soul of the soil...........i'm a spirtual being(rhizome) having a human experience (blooming once again) and in my journey, which is nearing the last quarter i suspect, my aged bones are paradoxically(sp?) opposed, i want to be outside.  ........let me outside!, she's ask, in a quiet, kind and gentle voice.  i didn't mean to sound as if i was ungrateful for i'm not.  every moment above the six foot under mark is appreciated and revealed in.

cuukoo1,

I know. I was just kidding around. It is so clear here today that not only can the wind farm ten miles across the lake be seen to be working, the signs on the bases are visible. I'd be lyin' if I told you that I could read them though.

i'm patient, i know fully my glory days are ah coming!!!!  and yes, my friend, it's all relative.  course if you knew some of mine you'd have a clear view of whence i came.  relatively speaking. 
 
it's dark green and stormy here.  a color to be aware of in tornado alley.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Samuel%20Gaillard%20Stoney%22  ;         I don't know if you can play this or not, Stoney, but this is your cousin Sam holding forth.  In a land of story tellers, he was legendary for his...

Hey Hol.... my message was cryptic yesterday!  I have curry simmering, and jasmine rice in the rice  cooker....about to toast some sesame seeds...MmMmMmm.

 
I think the powers that rule the twilight skies commissioned the spirit of Maxfield Parish to paint the sunset tonight. There was every shade of the "pink-blue sky" imaginable, along with some random brush strokes of salmon to add some depth.

Tonight's train may be a sepiatrain from the outside looking in, but it's full blown Technicolor on steroids looking out from within.

We're playing Indian Poker in the club car tonight. Game starts in one hour so smoke'em if you got 'em and don't be late.

Willie,

Thanks, best thing since the Taylor Grocery Band: "Tribilation in da gahden a lonesome."

I enjoyed the peculiarly southern way the emcee had of shutting up the guy who was speaking when he should have been listening: "We'll heah 'bout dat layda."

Was anyone on topic today?  Lemme check...hmmmm,  looks like ....Swaim, Cuukoo, and HeyHol were.... At least that's ten percent.               ~Swaim, your Zanzibar bee story was mahhhvelllous. 

Before we had the drive paved in concrete, huge yellow and black Bee-29s nested beneath the stone pad at the side door.

"You don't need to worry about them," we were told. We did anyway.

On Mackinac Island, you run the risk of being nailed by the native wasps which are large, black, white and not very nice. One got me on the back of the thigh as I squatted to speak to a child at a playground.

It was instructive to see how far down the list of expressions and phrases that I had grown accustomed to using that it was necessary to go to find one suitable for that setting. I think it was: 'Owie!'-  #50.

I was an awful long time in figuring out why the wasps, that get bigger and more offensive as the summer wears on, took exception to my cleaning the pool.

They drink- it turns out, from that little radius of water that clings, by surface tension, to the side of the pool, stretching just enough for them to hover horizontally and sip from it.

Anything that I do is going to create ripples and get their corks. They specialize in facial harassment but to be honest, the only times that I have been stung- about once every other year- it was as a result of flailing at them. It is my year.