One of the poems from my book: Bee People.
BEES VS PEOPLE
We all know local bees are bestWe're used to climate, crops and pests.What does the keeper do? The foolWith imports wrecks our local gene pool.
We like a hole up in a treeA bushel's the best cavity.He puts a hive upon the ground.Too big and square, we like it round.
The entrance should be really high,An inch-round hole from which we fly.The hive slot's sixteen inches longThe size, height, shape are simply wrong!
We do not like it on the groundTo many enemies are aroundBadgers, rats, mice and sheep, orWorst of all, that blasted keeper!
He parks us next to other hivesThat's not how we like to live our livesIf only we could have our sayOur neighbour'd be half a mile away.
In late spring, when the weather's warmingOur duty is to be out and swarming.Our keeper has a different thoughtAnd makes our efforts come to naught.
To spread our genes is in our bones.To do this we rear lots of drones.The keeper will our drone comb cullAnd thus our breeding efforts null.
Our queen should really stay alive Until she gets to four or five.What does that blasted keeper do?He kills her when she's only two.
We craft our comb so every cell Will do its own job very wellAnother keeper condemnation:"One size fits all" foundation.
We need to feast all summer longTo feed our many thousand throngBut with weedkiller and massive fieldsThe countryside no longer yields.
With summer o'er we've stacked our storesRemember that they're ours, not yours.Nevertheless he steals our honeyGives us sugar, worth less money.
He attacks our hive with smokeMakes us run and makes us chokeHe doesn't always, though, prevailIf we all use our sting in the tail!
Chris


             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html