What a gorgeous day! Eighty degrees, and tons of blossoms. Azaleas, wisteria, redbud, crab apple, pears, wild plums, yellow jasmine, anise hyssop, dewberries, huckleberries. Bees are happily working, though there is nowhere near the nectar flow that one would expect from the quantity of bloom. Perhaps the winter has been too mild to set the blossoms. One of the best yielding plants, anise hyssop, is rapidly being removed, as farmers cut the fields to plant corn. Life would be just about perfect on these lovely spring days, if it weren't for some people! This morning the zoning officer stopped to tell us we can't park our trucks and trailers at our honey house, because "outdoor storage isn't allowed." Huh? One of our bee yards has had a local testosterone-crazed jockey run through with a four wheel drive and crush some hives and equipment. I hope he got nails in his tires. Janice put a bait hive on a mobile home near here. Scout bees are looking over the cracks in the walls, so there must be swarmy bees nearby. The owner is terrified. He is desperate for us to remove them or poison them. We have reassured him that they aren't interested in him, just looking for a home, and the bait hive is the best chance of avoiding them winding up in a wall. Otherwise we've just got to wait and let nature take it's course. Today, the scouts were running in and out the bait hive, and seemed to have lost interest in the trailer, so we have high hopes. But they haven't moved in yet. This afternoon a lady stopped and was frantic because the bees were "swarming" in her bushes. She was spraying them with Raid, but that didn't seem to stop them, so she called on us. She had a hedge of Chinese holly in full bloom. Bees LOVE this plant, and they were foraging on it in large numbers. I chewed her out as gently as I could, but didn't feel so kindly. "Lady, that's the way nature works! You want nice red berries on your holly to make them pretty this fall, don't you? Well the bees have to come and pollinate the blossoms, if you are going to have berries. And if you kill the bees, what will the birds eat? And you are killing the "livestock" of the bee farmer, who owns the bees! (I know the beekeepers, a young couple, struggling to get started in bees.) There's not the slightest reason to be terrified. They are not interested in you at all. They are just gathering their food, while doing you some good by accident." Etc. Sheesh...... [log in to unmask] Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 29554 (Dave & Jan's Pollination Service, Pot o'Gold Honey Co.) Pollination for lay people, students, teachers ....Of bees, beekeepers, and food http://users.aol.com/queenbjan/primbees.htm Pollination for the pros - those involved in doing it: Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html Jan's Sweetness and Light Varietal Honeys and Gift Sets http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm