No pictures with this post, I’m afraid. I was a bit preoccupied to reach for the camera.
Inevitably we get the occasional unpleasant insect coming into the awning, including wasps and hornets. But yesterday evening we were invaded by a hornet the like of which I’d never seen. It was fully 4cm long, and from looking on the internet it was indeed a Giant Asian Hornet, not the yellow-bodied European one.
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We had a call on Sunday that the apiary had been vandalised. Sure enough, the screen fence has been smashed down and two beehives pushed over. One of the other beekeepers discovered it, and reinstated the hives, at some cost in stings.
I guess that we’ll repair the fence in due course. It’s probably better not to do so immediately, lest the vandals find the site a source of even greater entertainment – “they kinda build it up, like, man, innit, and we break it down, know what I mean? Tacticaaal!”.
I’m pondering whether to report it to the police. On the one hand, if I do, they’ll mock me, which will do nothing for my blood pressure. On the other hand, if I don’t, and one of these exemplars of modern education gets stung to death, I’ll probably be thrown in the slammer on a murder charge.
First, a caveat. This blog entry isn’t written with fellow beekeepers in mind – so if any beekeepers are reading this, please forgive the lack of jargon and, well, simplicity of the explanation!
It’s an old saw that people start keeping bees for the honey, and get out of it for the same reason. We didn’t even start for the sake of the honey. Rather we wanted to keep bees to improve the pollination of the fruit and veg on our allotment, and it grew from there. But at the point of just finishing the honey bottling, we’re somewhat in sympathy with the second part of the saying. It’s a lot of work, and unbelievably sticky work at that. Perhaps it would be better if we actually liked honey, but we don’t really use it ourselves. Still, there’s a satisfaction to be gained in producing a good “artisanale” product.
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