|
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
A Gardener's Diary...
Winter Bees, Grease Patties, and Crisco
|
by Julie Harrell
|
Who uses Crisco, raise your
hand! You know what kind, the hydrogenated solid stuff that you can buy
at Wally's for a mere few dollars. I have discovered, in the past
month, multiple uses for this vile substance, and most notably, my bees
love it! According to our wonderful go-to resource, Vilness Mattison,
an elderly, bee-loving, honey producing, Latvian gentleman who lives in
Averill Park, grease patties are needed in the winter to feed the bees.
Bee Journal agrees with him, as do many online resources and forums. We
have been buying many pounds of organic sugar from the Co-op all
summer, feeding syrup (sugar mixed with water) in a top feeder to keep
our hungry bees content.
Some folks say, ah just leave the bees, they'll fend for themselves.
Here at Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm, which is beginning to feel more
like Noah's Ark, we feed our bees as long as they are willing to eat.
They have fended too much for themselves already and our goal is to
bring them back to health.
Vilness says his 20 or so hives also needed to eat all summer, due to
the fact that the rainy season (just like in the tropics) caused the
pollen to be less accessible to the bees. So, he says, feed them if
they are hungry. I would have done it anyway. Back to the Crisco. You
can buy bee patties or you can make them yourself, and being an
ingredient-minded Co-op devotee (I have transcended "shopper"), I made
them myself, thus ensuring organic sugar for my patties. The bees
deserve organic, after all, for without the bees we would have no more
sugar cane, sugar beets, or food on the planet. Crisco is recommended
because evidently, the vile varroa mite attaches to the grease which
leads to their demise. You know how I feel about pesky parasites if
you've read the November Coop Scoop. Here's my grease patty recipe for
those of you who are interested:
• One gallon container filled with organic sugar from the Co-op's bulk
department
• One can of Crisco, heated in a pan of hot water so that it will
loosen into a big blob
• Four ounces of Honey Bee Healthy, made of essential oils
• One quart of local honey
• Two ounces pink Himalayan salt
Slightly warm the Crisco in a big pot on the stove, add sugar and salt,
mix till all is one syrupy glob, remove from stove, add Honey Bee
Healthy and last, add honey.
Mix well, then scoop big fat patties onto wax paper, and head out to
the beehives. Which brings me to the next part of my story, my first
time handling the bees. Vilness insisted that I change from a top
feeder, which doesn't work for grease patties anyway, to smaller
feeders that take mason jars with syrup. These sit on wooden dividers
with a hole. What this entailed was taking apart the beehive feeder,
which sits directly above the combs (filled with buzzing bees),
replacing it with a wooden "feeder top" with a hole in the middle for
the bee tunnel, and placing patties on this wooden top. Then I was to
add a large "super" which is basically a rectangle without top or
bottom, then finally the top cap, which seals everything. Vilness also
told me to place crumbled up newspapers within the super to collect
moisture, which is not good for bees.
We had one good warm day in the 50s before it turned cold with rain and
then a big snowstorm. On that one warm day, the bees could be
disturbed. Yes, they were truly disturbed all right. Always in the
past, my husband has handled the bees as I have reactions to stings,
thus keep an Eppie pen handy and loving them from a distance. We had
one bee outfit with a mesh face mask, hat and gloves which fit only
him, so I had never actually done more than add syrup to the top feeder
while the bees were napping. Due to my desire to become more involved
in their care, I purchased my own smaller outfit, and prepared to
venture out to completely switch their feeding system. The bees were
not happy to see me.
I was like a thief in the night. First, I prepared for my assault on
their home by setting up my equipment in the tipi, getting the patties
together, putting on my new size small hatshirt- face netting combo,
then the gloves. I slowly came out behind their hives, (you do not want
to get in the way of active bee flight patterns) having turned off the
electric fence beforehand. Once I began to get close enough to remove
one of two top feeders, I heard a loud buzzing. Having watched too much
Alfred Hitchcock in my childhood, I dropped everything, and ran to the
house. Bees had attached to my green sweat pants, and one stung me on
the rear end. I breathlessly called my husband "Jerome!"
You have to talk me through this!" Which he did. After removing about
ten bees from my green sweat pants, I realized they had to come off,
and I put on the recommended jeans. Multiple forays into the swarming
angry hive nest later, each time freaking out, running back to the
house and calling Jerome, the bees were happily munching on grease
patties. And the next day it snowed, thus closing the window of
opportunity to feed our babies their winter rations.
Now that I'm officially stung, and a proud keeper of bees, I can watch
my flock closely through the hole in the wooden feeder to see how they
fare. So far, ours are fast-multiplying, happy, feeding bees. Crisco
and organic sugar, who'd have thought we would come to this? We have
two more "nukes" coming this spring from a local beekeeper if his bees
survive the winter, and will add these new families to our bee village.
Vilness says his bees are creating more propolis than he's ever seen
before. Knowing that propolis is used in herbal medicine as an
antibiotic, I believe this means the bee's immune systems are finally
fighting back. With the help of our Divine Creator, each of us with a
single organic, heirloom flower in our backyard will bring back the
bees.
As Junesan tells us to pray, Namu-myoho-renge-kyo.
|
| Back to the Table of Contents |
|
|
|
