New Normal?

 September 13, 2020

Two days ago we remembered September 11, when our world was attacked by terrorists. That led to fear and panic by many, heroic acts by others and eventually and to limits in Airplane flights that we have all come to accept as normal.

Six months ago Covid started shutting down parts of our world. There has been much fear and panic by many, heroic acts by others and reopening with restrictions. Some we may have to accept as the new normal.

Today for the first time in about 6 months I was able to attend church in our normal meeting house. Wearing masks coming in, hand sanitizing, sitting in alternating pews, not being allowed to visit with others, being asked not to sing but just to read along... I find myself grateful to be able to worship but wishing for the "how, where, or what they may" part of worship. The music and singing is one of my favorite parts of worship. Getting to know others is also highly enjoyable. I found myself looking around the room and finding several new faces that I am not allowed to introduce myself to and don't know how I will get to know them. If this is the new "normal" how much harder it must be on them if there are a few I don't know, there must be a room full of people they do not know.  No, we don' t have to know others in the room to worship God, but since we are all brothers and sisters, it is easier to support one another and be supported by those we know.

Up until now I have accepted the restrictions believing in the back of my mind that these might be more permanent than I like but not being too bothered by them. Today it felt a little like a terrorist attack. For the safety of others I will still comply but I will look harder for ways to reach out and make connections with others.

 September 6, 2020

Yesterday we made the hard decision to rob from a weaker hive to give our stronger hive a better chance to survive the winter. I would have liked to find the queen of the weaker hive and sacrifice only her to combine the whole weaker hive in, but we are inexperienced and could not find her. The weaker hive only had 10 frames and that is just not enough to make it through winter. The stronger hive had about 16-18 frames. That is closer, but possible still not enough. I hope that by robbing and sacrificing one we can keep one alive through winter, then either split off a nuc from it, or buy a nuc to get a second hive going.

We will check on them in a couple weeks. I would still love the chance to save more of the weaker hive. We will see if I still have time to work with them, or if I have waited too long.

I have read books for years on bees. Watched Youtube videos. Read websites, but actually doing it is different. Especially when I have gone a non-traditional route by doing horizontal hives. Langstroth deep frames, but the hives only have room for 30 frames. The hope and plan to leave about 20+ frames each winter for them, and hope to harvest a few others in future years. This year my biggest goal is just to get at least one hive through the winter. If I can do that then I hope to build at least one more hive, maybe two then be able to have three running and a have a back up in case I need to run splits in the spring. 

I have to admit I am tempted to see if I can harvest one frame of honey this year, since I am sacrificing a hive anyway. I will have to see how the hive really looks in a couple weeks to see if I can manipulate the frames to move the yucky old ones to the back to pull off in the spring and if I have enough left for the bees to work with and keep them alive and fed all winter....

I am debating feeding some fondant just in case for the winter, but I really thing they have enough in the strong hive to be ok, and the weak one I doomed when I robbed from it.