Virgil's Bees

By Carol Ann Duffy

Bless air's gift of sweetness, honey
from the bees, inspired by clover,
marigold, eucalyptus, thyme,
the hundred perfumes of the wind.
Bless the beekeeper

who chooses for her hives

a site near water, violet beds, no yew,
no echo. Let the light lilt, leak, green
or gold, pigment for queens,
and joy be inexplicable but there
in harmony of willowherb and stream,
of summer heat and breeze,

each bee's body

at its brilliant flower, lover-stunned,
strumming on fragrance, smitten.

For this,

let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.

Transition

With the season's change comes new concerns. We had our first "Bee Meeting" of the autumn/winter season, and I discovered that there may be some significant mistakes I've made - enough to have to be prepared for the possibility that my bees may not survive the winter.

I should have been growing a "brood and a half" - a brood chamber and a super full of brood. When it was clear, in the summer, that my super was not going to offer me a honey crop, I should've taken out the Queen Excluder and allowed Her Majesty upstairs to continue laying eggs up there. Instead I left it on too long. I have a brood chamber filled with honey, and brood, yes, but are they overcrowded in there? I don't know enough to know for sure, one way or another. Will they have enough bees to survive the winter? I don't know enough to be sure, one way or the other.

I have taken off the super. Should I have? I don't know ...

As I walked home last night, I pondered. Should I perhaps put back the super, which will give me sufficient space to keep feeding (should I still be feeding? I don't know ... blah blah)? If I put the super back, perhaps I could put a couple of empty frames in place, just to add substance and warmth, but leave enough space to keep the contact feeder in place through the winter.

I must buy a quilt. Should it be insulated? Or could I get by with a polycarb see-through one?

I must buy a stand. I want a stand. The hive looks so heavy, it's almost pushing the stand it's on, into the ground. (That's a good sign, surely?)

ARRRRGH!

It's all doing me head in, I tell you!

Cool!

This costs about as much as the ice cream tub I've been using, and it's much more civilized. No bee drowning allowed. All I have to do now is get all that sugar properly dissolved in the water!