Just Shaking My head

[Michael Palmer]

15-30 min for a single covered frame, huh.

And what will you learn from a frame of brood and bees in 15-30 minutes of observation? I ask my bees..oops, no I don't ask my bees...I breed bees that are quiet on the combs, or at least try to. Most do remain quiet on the comb as I inspect. I want the bees to continue what they were doing so I can observe. But 30 minutes??

[Jack Grimshaw]

In defence of Ross,he has written some good things re: natural beekeeping.
But sometimes he does seem to go overboard.
There may be some touchy-feely beginers out there who hang on his every word but for me,I keep my BS filter turned to high.

My chickens,on the other hand. We have a nice conversation every morning.

[mythomane]

It just shows how desperate magazines are for copy. ANY copy. A lot of articles in there are just to meat up the magazine (e.g. Loringborst). His organic beekeeping book is not bad, but you have to cleave much of that American-Indian/Hippie White Guy philosophy out. He does know something about bees (from Mraz), but he tends to romanticize a bit much. Anyone know how many hives he is running now? Seems like his spiritual relationship was not working out so well a few years ago, and he got dumped...lost most of his hives. Should of booned-up and used that finger, I guess.

[Oldbee]

It seemed to me there was a lot of the New England [R.Conrad is in Vermont] Transcendentalist philosophy in the article. Transcendentalism had its beginnings in New England with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry D.Thoreau. A close, almost spiritual connection to nature was a large part of that philosophy I believe. He's one of your guys M. Palmer .

From "Nature", by Emerson:

"To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes."

[cdanderson]

Yep, I believe in respecting nature but that article was a waste of copy space for me.

[bhfury]

At least you got your BC magazine, I haven't got mine yet.

[dmpower]

Maybe I missed the jest of the matter from the original post. But my input is going to be that what is BC thinking putting such a stupid, yeah, I said stupid article in their magazine. I got to that article early on, didn't finish it, and laid the mag. down and haven't picked it back up. Probably will not.
I said some time ago that BC was my favorite of the two main publications. I recant that stament as that one article ruined the entire issue for me. Just my thoughts.

I have to agree with this!! What is BC doing putting this article in print? Unfortunately the December issue was my first issue of BC - and it may be my last

[Laurence Hope]

I haven't gotten my issue yet, either. (Must be late shipping to the valley) But thanks for the warning. I was about to buy a book of his. Now I am second thinking it.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

15-30 Min a frame???? On my better hives, the queen would have jumped off already, and the bees would be sparse except for around my head. Men will try to find anything that will give them pleasure, and not live by the Way.

mike

[FRAMEshift]

What a statistical anomaly! 97% of the American public claim to believe in God. Yet 100% of the posters to this thread seem to be atheists... or hypocrites.

[bigbearomaha]

how on earth did you jump to that conclusion??

[Barry]

dating bees though? I think Ross needs to start sharing some of whatever it is he is toking on.

If he's not, getting married could do him good!

[HONEYDEW]

Is it just me or is BC becoming more tree hugerish every issue

[concrete-bees]

- I too am a little let down in the recent articals - true to the fact that here is a lot of good reading in the BC but yeah that artical has made Dec BC a paper weight on my desk -

i would rather them have spent the pages on, what to expect in Jan in terms of wintering and feedings - or patty recipies or moisture control - or even just a few pages of blank pages so that we can scribble on them,

I think that there is better topics that are in greater demand at the present time.

Thats my 2 cents

[raosmun]

Let's be truthful now !
It sounds as tho you folks don't sing and talk too your bees !
I definitely talk to mine when they are in a stinging mood, sometimes very loudly.
PCM

I did not read the article, but it sounds like another "tree huger". "MOOD" is a human trate as are many other trate's we apply to our bees, afterall bees are insects (allthough social) and they do there own thing and on there terms! We "BK's" just try to give the gals a home to there liking and are rewarded with some of there excess work - honey. Not to be demeaning! I get great delight observing there activity(s), on a sunny afternoon with a STIFF Scotch 20+ feet from a couple of hives sitting under an apple tree.
As to the above quote: I do talk to me bees when there are in a foul "MOOD" and with expletives!!

[mac]

Come on ya’ll ya know ya talk to your bees. “Come on ya dang gum queen. I know your on this dad gum frame cause a just say ya about 2 seconds ago. Where did ya go. How am I going to make a dad gum split if ya keep running around on all these dad gum frames. Come out come out where ever ya are.” Ya know it's true.

[edward]

If he's not, getting married could do him good!

Probably beecause he is spending to much time looking at his bees

mvh edward

[Omie]

I see nothing offensive or stupid in the quotes from the original article (which naturally are taken out of context). For example- did the author suggest we should study every frame of every hive for 15-30 minutes? I doubt it- I'm guessing he meant we could learn a lot about our bees and get to know them better if we take a few minutes to really watch them on the comb. I don't know about you all, but I've seen a few BK's who would do well to observe their bees more closely.

Are we so fragile as to not be able to handle reading someone else's approach to keeping bees if it doesn't jive with our own? That we will refuse to ever again read a magazine that presents one article we feel is a bunch of bologna? I like it when magazines present varied ideas. Can we not also learn from momentarily considering other people's points of view? If we know everything already with such certainty, then why read magazines at all?

Native Americans practiced things like thanking an animal they killed for meat, or symbolically honoring a tree they felled to make a canoe. They felt it was part of being in harmony with the natural world they were a part of. Is there something so wrong with these concepts that they should be ridiculed? Is beekeeping only about production and numbers? Is it so ridiculous and absurd for some people to find personal spiritual beauty in feeling harmoniously connected with their bees? That someone with hundreds of commercial hives would have little time to devote to such things on an individual hive basis is, I think, rather obvious.

I don't think I'd be doing dances or chanting for my bees, but I talk to them sometimes for fun- it gives me pleasure. I plant certain flowers for them hoping they will enjoy them. I also talk to my vegetables sometimes when I'm gardening, or I hum tunes while I plant lettuce seeds- big deal.

I still keep a little match box from when I was 6 yrs old... i put in it the whisker of my beloved cat. I still have it after 50 years, and having it makes me feel nice. I don't find it laughable or crazy at all if someone leaves a few hairs from their head for their bees as a 'thank you' gift for their honey. It's symbolic. People do lovely symbolic things all the time in this world...or hasn't anyone ever noticed?

[Michael Palmer]

Come on ya’ll ya know ya talk to your bees. “Come on ya dang gum queen.

Of course we all do. I call all my queens Martha. Easier to remember their names that way.

[bigbearomaha]

Native Americans practiced things like thanking an animal they killed for meat, or symbolically honoring a tree they felled to make a canoe. They felt it was part of being in harmony with the natural world they were a part of. Is there something so wrong with these concepts that they should be ridiculed?

I still do those things.

I don't think people are dissing the fact of respecting the bees, but the concept of talking about bees as if you would "date" them like a human girl and that is not out of context,that is exactly what he said.

I treat my dog with great respect and as a part of my family. But I recognize he is still a dog. I am not one of those people people that coo and refer to myself as his parent or such nonsense. he's a dog and proper respect says I should recognize that. Not trey to make him what I am.

Same goes for the bees. I have great respect for the bees but I don't treat them like they are human. they are bees.

What Ross did was enter that "crazy" world of treating animals like humans.

not smart, respectful or healthy.

btw, I talk to my dog and the bees all the time. I have entire one sided discussions with them. the same way I do with my kids. I don't expect them to talk back to me though. not in the human sense anyway. (the bees and my dog, that is. The kids, well, that's another story)