The Heat Wave Is Really Stressing Our Bee Hives

The Heat Wave Is Really Stressing Our Bee Hives

The last seven to ten days of temperatures in the mid to high nineties F - along with humidities in the 80s 90s range has not only affected us humans but it is really stressing the bee hives up and down the coast. An old friend in New Jersey who raises bees called me when he saw my earlier 'bearding' photos and told me to call him and in the course of the ensuing conversation when I described the usually normal behaviour, he told me that our hive was over heating and probably melting wax (the bees were hauling out dead or dying larvae) GET SHADE ON THEM IMMEDIATELY was the advice.  The photos here and maybe to follow show my effort this morning to both head off a similar occurrence on the non-bearding hive and to do damage control for the bearding hive.  It catches the sun earlier in the morning by about an hour (strange and so close together) and then gets the sun as long as the other for the rest of the day AND in addition has a metal covering at the top which supposedly reflects the sun and heat but it gets unbearably hot to the touch (I plan to paint it white when we get through this present problem).  Although he suggested 'brushing' the bearded bees into a bucket and then dumping them in the top Carol and I decided to wait a bit longer - and I have already observed the top of the beard bees crawling in and onto the top inner cover now that I have raised the outer cover and shaded it.  Stay tuned.

Talissker Single Malt Scotch Whisky 10 year old

 

this is not a review per se, but I have been doing a little internet island hopping while sipping my usual small cut glass tumbler filled about two fingers deep - with maybe a refill coming up -  of 'Talisker's 10 year old, that I just opened.  it is one of my all-time favorites and someday, lottery willing,  I will be trying one of the pricey many years old of the same distillery but for now this truly outstanding 10 year old malt shows its real strengths compared with some of the fine blended malts that I have favored for a while due to cost considerations - the smoothness of this lovely coloured drink lets the bite of the nicely higher alcohol content - 45.8 % ABV - do its job without destroying the abundance of flavours in the background - to me that means a mildly – almost a perfect mildly - sweet honey flavoured peat smoke to  tease my tongue with the antiqueness of a rich browny background of an old pub that I visited once in Ireland and finishing with a quiet calm day at a kelp covered beach with the faint iodine flavours giving savour to the day – then the finish of this great whisky comes on as you breathe in the peppery last notes for the longest time – there is no argument against Michael’s 90 rating – unless perhaps you want to move it a tad farther toward a strong 92     norvellhimself

Crab Feast At Black Hill - III (or is it IV or V, at any rate some more of the evenings good times

Crab Feast At Black Hill - II (or is it III or IV, at any rate some more of the evenings good times

the best crabs this year than I've seen and eaten in years - firm crisp shells, full meated and great flavour and I ate more than three for the first time in the same number of years - and all agreed these were great - with  the down home side dish of corn-on-the-cob, white corn, also good for the less than dyed-in-the-wool crab eaters as well as for those who don't do the crab thing