Major Atlantic Storm Hits Parts of Europe

Some parts of Europe have been hit by a very strong Orcano storm. UK, France and Holland as well as Denmark have been stormed heavily. The part of Sweden I live in less so but even though it was not as bad the wind was so strong that I had no desire to go out and walk my dog.

I knew about this storm so I made sure to fasten all bee hive roofs. The wind was blowing from South-West which is hitting directly at my hives. The biggest threat to both my hives and our house roof was the hollow tree only a few meters away which, if the wind was strong enough, could fall down and cause much damage.
This did not happen.

The hives are still in place undamaged by the last nights
strong Atlantic Storm.

October Orientation Flight

Strong buzzing came from Che Guebee Apiary today. All 6 colonies are performing orientation flights. The hives were very quiet for more than a week now since we had some frosty weather followed by rainy days. Today its sunny and warm and the new-born winter bees are performing orientation flights. How do I know this; well, their flying pattern is in a form of a figure 8 and they seem to fly higher and higher in the same pattern scanning the surrounding.

One lovely fuzzy winter bee decided to rest on my finger for a while telling me "see you in the spring ol' chap" :) May you be happy at heart little bee and may your colony prosper next year :)

The Bee and The Pesticides

I flew out of the darkness of my home
Into the morning Sun
So bright and warm

Spreading my buzz
Into the wet morning air
Pollen and Nectar is all I'm to wear

I fly so high
Into the vast blue sky
Bathing in the light breeze
Rushing my wings with ease

I lend on the flower
So golden so sweet
It gives me such power
To feed my Queen's fleet

I'm drinking from the flower
Unaware of its lure
Filling my body with nectar
which isn't so pure

My body falls to the ground
Wings grow cold and still
My sisters will join me in the grave
The poison had made its kill

Is Mono-crop Agriculture Killing the Bees?

Hallo friends,
for all of you who care about the future of our children and future generations as well as all other living beings sharing this planet with us I beg you to actually see this short but highly insightful speech by bee biologist Marla Spivak. Bees are in deep shit all over the planet and its time we understand why that is. Marla explains it well.

I'm afraid its come to the point to totally abandon our "american dream" kind of life style and adopt a more sustainable one, which is based on "less is more".
Mono-crop agriculture is the original sin of human kind. Because of it pesticides are developed, biodiversity is destroyed, insects are disappearing, birds are disappearing, ... Lets not fool our selves! Our modern day consumerist life style will be our doom. Each time we choose to buy food from supermarkets which is grown on mono-crop fields we are killing our childrens future. It matters little if you buy organic food made in same mono-crop fashion. Mono-crop agriculture remains Devoid of Biodiversity! Bees can't survive on one pollen source which is in bloom for only couple of weeks!

Our politicians are short sided; they only think as far as taxes. Maybe its time we stop waiting for them to change their minds and take action into our own hands.

I hope you take Marla's talk seriously and if, share with as many people as you can. And dont forget to plant flowers for bees. Each flower count!

My actual teacher

I read many beekeeping books, forums, blogs and web pages. I even joined my local bee club and even though I've got much insight from all these sources none of them became my actual teacher, rather they have been a deep ocean of views to cut through.

... my actual teacher seem to be the honeybee colonies in my hives which are not teaching me through my conditioned mind but instead seem to be teaching me through my heart as if they are clustering around it and turning it into white warm wax filled with honey, pollen and brood.

They seem to be throwing a large net from that heart of mine into the environment resulting in a wide glowing awareness shining over the degrading Earth.
They are not showing me how to manipulate the hive, light the smoker or how to harvest honey. No. They are showing me my human greed and ignorance which is destroying the life on Earth and how, through heart, I can heal it.

But then I see the dark abyss entirely made by the perverted mind of ours and my heart gets discouraged. The bees sense this and whisper into my heart " do not get frightened by the darkness. There still is hope ... the shining Sun had told us so"
Their deep buzzing vibrates in my heart, echoing from it AUM mantra into the sleeping world, and together with the Sun awaking us all, out of the enchanting dream.

I believed that I caught this swarm of bees last year and placed them into a hive, but just now I come to realise that it was them who caught me ... and have moved into my heart.

October Apple Flow

I see my ladies being very interested in the apples from our orchard, especially those damaged and those eaten by our Hens. There must be lots of fructose sugar available there. I see their proboscis sucking sweet apple juice with zest :) May they bee happy!

Holma Forest Garden building their first Top Bar Hive

Holma Forest Garden near the city of Höör (Sweden) had an open family day yesterday with many activities including: covering their permanent beds with straw, building a stone wall for insects and solitary bees, pressing Apples, harvesting forest garden fruits and seeds and building a Kenya style Top Bar Hive.

They invited me to do the top bar hive workshop and I was delighted to do it. I was truly surprised how many people showed interested in top bar beekeeping, such a joy for me indeed :)

 More than 60 people showed up :)

 lots of kids too learning about permaculture and natural top bar beekeeping

 food was organised ...

 large group of visitors joined in building this top bar hive

 finished Kenya Top Bar Hive

they will use an old aluminium aquarium stand for hive legs.

This was a very rewording day. We even had visitors who came down to Skåne from another province called Småland just to be involved in this top bar hive workshop.
We also had a couple of conventional beekeepers who would like to start top bar beekeeping.

I want to thank everyone who was involved and who is considering to start natural beekeeping in such hives where Honeybees needs are more important than honey production.

Another top bar hive in Sweden is about to start Buzzing :))

3rd Super TBH joined the Che Guebee Apiary family

I have finished today with building another Bee-friendly Super Top Bar Hive. Since I use any material I can find my hives don't look the same. That matters little. What matters is the idea behind it and I cant wait for the next season to test them and see if my ladies like them.