Winterizing the bees and some dubious updates

Bees hibernate at 50 degrees, meaning they stay indoors.  So, just before we left Md. last week, like a good bee keeper, Barry covered the hives in special bee blankets, which are black to absorb heat.   Also, he made sure to leave some food (left-over honey after humans raid it).  

If it gets above 50 degrees the bees will do a poop run, euphemistically called a "cleansing flight."

Unfortunately...

We have another hive down.  Barry started with three, but as of now, it looks like only one will survive.  I suppose I should do a trigger alert or something, but here is what it looked like inside on the bottom of the hive on the left.  Yes, they are all dead.

Barry's best guess is herbicide.  One possibility is a crop duster spraying for Johnson grass, a much-hated weed.  

TMI:  Introduced into this country as food for grazing livestock in the 1800s by Col. William Johnson, the grass is considered one of the world's 10 worst weeds.  Brought from Eurasia (wherever that is) to his farm in Alabama, the highly-adaptable weed remains Mr. Johnson's dubious legacy to the new nation.  It also causes cows to have gas and one herd might mean the evacuation of an entire county.  

Johnson grass

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An election report from the Far Side... 

Brothel owner, Dennis Hof, who is dead, won the midterm election for Nevada legislature -- and the race wasn't even close.

Owner of five brothels and reality television star Hof won a seat in Nevada’s heavily GOP 36^thAssembly District. The only problem is the 72-year-old was found dead on Oct. 16 after partying at one of his brothels all weekend in celebration of his birthday.

When Hof died weeks before the election, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot but he easily beat out his fellow Democratic candidate and educator, Lesia Romanov, with 68 percent of the votes. 

Raise a glass to The Far Side:

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"Where there's water..."



Barry and I will be showing our landscape photography from cruising the Chesapeake, the ICW and Bahamas.  The show is March 2019 at Artists Guild Gallery in Vero Beach, with a reception Friday, March 1 from 5 to 8 pm, the same time as Vero's monthly art walk.  

I know.  I'm telling you about an event that's a half year away.  Just "file it" and I will do a follow up.  

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That's all folks...

Sleeping dogs lying