“The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.” -Jacques Yves Cousteau (1910-1997) - #honeybee #protectnature #jacquescousteau #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa) June 24, 2018 by Lisa Minucci
A post shared by Lisa Minucci (@lisaminucci) on May 15, 2018 at 8:03pm PDT May 15, 2018 by Lisa Minucci …and I think I’M busy…. - #bee #beekeeping @napavalleybeeco #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa)
I smell orange 🍊 blossom honey! - #california #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping #honey (at At Home in Napa) April 17, 2018 by Lisa Minucci
Torching the nooks and crannies of the beehives to rid them of last year’s pestilence in preparation for the new 🐝 inhabitants. - #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping #inbeeswetrust (at At Home in Napa) April 07, 2018 by Lisa Minucci
Taking clues from movements in Nature on how to live my life. - #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping #garden #borage @napavalleybeeco (at Napa, California) December 07, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
Joy (and nourishment) stirred with the first blooms of rosemary. - #garden #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping @napavalleybeeco (at At Home in Napa) November 27, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
Bees and borage. - #honeybee #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping @napavalleybeeco (at Kicking Bull Farms) November 19, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
The knife purchased a lifetime ago from a flea market outside Paris from an elfin woman specializing in ancient tools for the farm and la cuisine. - Wooden boxes splayed and overflowing; knives bung hole drillers leather cutters harnesses instruments of discipline. - Unearthed from farm jetsam lay an unusual knife, the handle lifted above the blade like a brick layer’s trowel. - Pour le miel, for the honey she said thrice. With a haughty smile and jaunty scarf and tiny hands elaborating slicing open the honeycomb, ouvrir le nid d'abeille liberating the honey. - Once belonging to a beekeeper in Burgundy, a friend of an uncle, a likely story for an over-eager foreigner with USD. - The carbon blade and turned walnut handle in fine condition from hundreds of years of minding someone else’s beeswax. - Buying a knife before the hive, the mis en place before the honeybees, a life glimpsed before it’s realized, the desire to understand Nature before I’m able to nurture. - #beekeeping #bee #backyardbeekeeping @napavalleybeeco (at At Home in Napa) November 15, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
Locked inside a wood and wire cage buried deep in soft honeycomb, a Pollack of nectar and honey, paces a new virgin queen anxious to replace the faltering first royal, her genetic lineage in question, her weakness threatening the health of the colony. - Re-Queening a maintenance not uncommon to marrying for title; cold, calculating in service to genetics to better battle the underclass of pestilence, the Varroa mite. - Autumn’s Hope languishes in her prison for four long days being fed and fanned, her new girlish scent alerting the swollen hive to her noble presence. - If accepted rather than slaughtered, she is released, ascending the throne amongst the throng; her virginity powdered, puffed and prepped for her maiden flight to bee serviced by randy drones, laid amongst the last blooms of fall’s garden. - If Autumn’s Hope manages to find her way home, her walk of shame will not be in party dress and oversized sunglasses but rather in slutty swaggering triumph, for she now bears a lifetime of sperm in her tiny abdomen with which to fertilize a lifetime of eggs. - So many variables, possibilities for failure: a hungry bird unrequited lust, a misdirected honing signal. - But I’ve made it this far, and hopefully so will she. - #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping #longmayshereign (at At Home in Napa) October 04, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” -Henry David Thoreau (American 1817-1862) - #bee #backyardbeekeeping #sunflower (at At Home in Napa) September 11, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
The moments before a sunflower 🌻 pops are just as momentous. - #garden #sunflower #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa) September 05, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
Give ‘em an inch… the bee boxes weren’t a snug fit, so the ingenious fellas created a new entryway. The learning curve has been steep, fascinating and not yet laced with stings. ❤️🐝 - #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping @napavalleybeeco (at At Home in Napa) August 05, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
“There is a strange fact worthy to be mentioned which I have ascertained about the food of bees. There is a village called Hostilia on the banks of the river Po. The farmers of this settlement when the flowers of the neighborhood are over, place their hives on ships and take them during the night about five miles up the river. In the daytime the bees fly out and bring their booty to the ships, whose position is changed daily until it is noticed by the sinking of the ship lower in the water that the hives are full; then they are taken home and the honey is extracted.” Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD). #allium #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa) May 27, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
Superorganism, indeed. #mindblown #napavalleybeeco #beekeeping #bee #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa) May 22, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
🐝 Day Five. The new hive seems happy and adjusting well, furiously collecting nectar and building comb. My first nibble on their handiwork put me in mind of tasting wine in Alsace: distinct flavors of flowers and earth. As noted in the bee book, the pollen from the calendulas we planted to herald their arrival has made its way into their hive. Magical and meditative, I’m completely enchanted by their arduous daily ballet; I actually put a chair close to the hive to peep. #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping May 18, 2017 by Lisa Minucci
“Why am I just as happy as a child Why am I like a racehorse running wild Why am I in a state of ecstasy The reason is ‘cause something’s happened to me. I’m in love again, and the spring is comin’ I’m in love again, hear my heart strings strummin’ I’m in love again, and the hymn I’m hummin’ Is the Huddle Up, Cuddle Up Blues.” Cole Porter must have been an apiarist. #california #bee #beekeeping #backyardbeekeeping (at At Home in Napa) May 15, 2017 by Lisa Minucci