Taking it to the Next Level

Which in my case would be intermediate. But it is nice to be beyond "beginner" as a beekeeper. It's been a while since I had difficulty finding a queen. That's not to say it won't happen, but I'm finding her without looking more and more.

The really BIG news is that I've successfully raised queens! I have to honestly and sincerly thank Lonnie Funderburg who gave me a book on rearing queens and told me quite frankly to quit worrying about it and "just do it," exact words. So I did. I caught that queen, boxed her up to lay eggs where I wanted her to lay them, transferred them to a place where the workers would give them royal jelly and was rewarded with three virgin queens. That necessated the need to pull out that split deep and give them a place to call home. It'll be a couple of weeks before I see how their laying patterns are. They've got to mate first. Bill Miller gave me a link about artifical insemination of bees. I can see it's usefulness for genetic purity of queens especially in light of the aggressive dna of africanized bees. The drones die either way.

Since I'll be handling queens sooner or later I've got to learn to mark them. I guess that's next.

Becky is in Memphis for the week. She and Cindy will be working on music and have an appointment with a recording studio next Saturday. The appt. is here and Mike and Heather are coming in for Easter too. It will be nice. I've got a rough few months ahead of me as Terri will be working long distance via internet for an undetermined time. Her dad is a widower, has terminal cancer and as the only chld she's staying by his side. Can't blame her. I'm glad we can be flexible that way.

In other news, I realized this morning that scripture sanctions the medicinal use of alcohol. It's been under my nose all my life, Proverbs 31:6. Interesting that it was predicated by statements that Solomon should not touch the stuff. Go Bathsheba! I have to love that woman. So now when the kids tease me about my homemade cough syrup it shouldn't be so bad. Hey, you may think you'll never swallow again but the mess works!

I started Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge last week. I'm on chapter 2 now. So far so good. It's a fresh look at womanhood and while I appreciate the author's frustration with trying to live up to some ideal of the perfect woman, I was a little disappointed that she picked on the Prov. 31 woman. I really think it's because modern thinking is that you have to do ALL that ALL the time to be the right kind of woman. NOT! There's no way she could keep that candle going all night with small kids. She's be passed out from sheer exhaustion just trying to keep up with them. And it's not likely she was running a home based business while suffering morning sickness either. Give the woman a break. The things listed there were done over a lifetime. Bathsheba was old or dead when Solomon wrote that. He knew her godly character better than anyone and this chapter reflects what he knew about the woman he admired most in life. And I suspect that between his honoring her with a seat at his right and writing of her nobal character he hoped to silence the accusations against her that continue to this day. I'm sure I'll have more comments after I've read more.

My other muse today concerned Deborah. I've pretty well concluded that some of the old guard in the bee club is gone for good due to the fact that they can't deal with a woman president. That is sad and I would challenge my critics to criticize by doing something better. As a "mother in Israel" Deborah rose to do what was needed during a time that the men did not. God blessed her and made Israel victorious through her leadership and the courage of another woman, Jael. So far God has blessed this bee thing I got myself into. He's given me wisdom to help others as well as the bees. It's been an avenue for blessing on many levels. We're facing a possible crisis right now and I've already got a plan to deal with it should it be needed. Deborah's are a good thing. Don't be a crybaby Barak or a weasel Heber.