They said someday you’ll find
Smoke gets in your eyes, Jerry Garcia (1995)
All who love are blind
When your heart’s on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes
Whether you like Jerome Kern’s version from 1950 or Jerry Garcia’s 1995 version of “Smoke gets in your eyes”, there was no escaping the metaphor this summer. Hives that were busy bringing in a bumper crop of fireweed nectar suddenly had bums in the air and noses deep in the cells consuming what had just been collected in earlier weeks. If you and I could smell and taste the smoke, you can imagine the panic in the hives as bees prepared to vacate the premises if things got any worse.
Despite the smoke, anecdotal feedback suggested people with strong hives in the outyards did well with honey production. Those, like Derek Wulff, who were prepared to set up camp on the logging road and extract on-site saved themselves extra trips and frames. I would like to add my thanks to Derek for not only coordinating the outyard set-up but also for providing us with his newsy and very informative updates that kept everyone in the loop.
The bright pink blossoms are gone, replaced by blobs of fuzzy seeds ready to be blown into next year and now we need to turn our minds to prepping for wind, rain and … winter.
Thank you to Second VP, Carolyn Hissen who will chair the September meeting. I will be learning about beekeepers in Croatia and Slovenia.