Hello all,

I am also (modestly) active on a farming newsgroup, and the above
question was asked. I sent the following reply, as this is just what
happened, and to my surprise I got a reply from a Bee-L lurker asking
why I did not post it here too. Please find it pasted below. Sadly this
is the true picture of my Christmas 2003.

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9:15, Christmas morning. Phone rings. Farmer X on the phone.

Did we not tell you we were starting to put in an irrigation system in
the
new raspberry field? (The one where the bees are wintering)

No you didn't.

Well, we are starting to excavate for the main pipe tomorrow morning at
first light. (Boxing day non existent around these parts)

and so on.

So, under the glowering gaze of my wife, and the disappointed gaze of my
two youngest, it was on with the oilskins and wellies, and away out in
one
of the Unimogs to shift 40 hives of bees from one farm, about 5 miles to
another. Back in about 12:30. All peaceful till about 6 that night. (
Apart
from the guilt trip being laid on thick the rest of the afternoon about
going
out on Christmas Day when I was needed to help. Did I do it on purpose
to
get away? Slightly frosty Christmas Dinner.)

Then the phone rings.

Farmer Y on the phone.

About your bees in the Crossroads wood.

Yes.

Well, we were a bit short on grazing, so we stuck 40 head of cattle in
there
a couple of days ago, until we get another place for them, and they have
disturbed a couple of hives.

OK, I'll be up in the morning. (With some trepidation, as there are
certain
key phrases that set alarm bells ringing, such as:-

'My young lad was out in the car and noticed one of your hives was lying
on it's side'. This usually translates as 'He was out careering around
in the
pick up truck pretending his name was Schumacher, failed to corner, and
demolished a dozen hives.'

or

'We were cutting some wood for the house and one of the hives got
disturbed'  equates to 'Oops, a tree we felled landed right across a
pallet
(or more!) of your hives, and reduced them to matchwood.')

You get the picture.

8:00 Boxing day morning. Oilskins, wellies and Unimog and off I go.
Reach
the Crossroads wood and it is carnage. Bucketing down with torrential
rain,
they have had so many cattle in there all the surface vegetation has
gone
(it had loads of wild orchids in it last summer, albeit not rare ones),
and it
is now a foot deep in churned up mud.

Unimog of course churns through everything and I arrive at the bees to
find
28 out of 40 hives are varying states of disarray, and at least 6 will
not
survive this, having been both knocked over and trampled.

The mud there (three weeks ago it was a lovely wood with plenty former
vegetation remaining standing) was almost up to the top of my boots. I
suspect little more than nettles will be growing there next summer.

Get back home, to find domestic bliss has broken down and the 7 and 9
year olds are at each others throats, wife is at the end of her tether
with
them, the teenage sons (aged 21 and 24!) have still failed to get out of
bed,
and I was needed back at least an hour before as my wife wanted to get
away to the Boxing Day sales for which it was now too late. (Did I take
so
long on purpose because I was happier away from home?).

Ah, the bliss of the holiday season.

At least they heeded something this year.

For years I have been telling them all NOT to waste their hard earned
money on junk at Christmas, buying gifts that are not wanted, and of
little
use or robustness, when they actually have more need of the money than I
do of the gift. So, at present opening time I am presented with
precisely
zero parcels. Exactly what I wanted. Then at the very end I get an
envelope
handed to me and open it to be utterly delighted by the contents.

Instead of buying me something useless they had clubbed together and
sent beehives to poverty stricken people in Lesotho in my name. (An
organised charity, Send a Cow, does this in a proper manner, and they
had contacted it to make the arrangements.)

I could hardly speak I was so pleased. So much more in the spirit of the
season than the endless consumer junk, not needed, not really wanted,
and much of it only designed to put maximum profits in company hands
and keep GBP 20 a month workers in China busy. Wonderful.

Hope you all had a nice peaceful Christmas, and that New Year brings
contentment.


Murray

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For anyone interested, the Send a Cow charity is linked to the US
organisation Heifer International


Murray
--
Murray McGregor

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