Keeping bees in Mpumalanga SA

So.   Keeping bees in Mpumalanga SA is fraught with issues we didn't know of before we started.

First we had a few hives inside our rather extensive yard but when the grandchildren started coming along we decided to move them to other areas on the farm.   Fortunately we had spotted some badgers before we did the move, so we knew we were going to have to make it badger friendly.   What we didn't know was badgers was going to prove to be the least of our problems.

Here FJ is clearing land for establishing the hives.   As soon as he started the loader each morning he was joined by two fork-tailed drongos that flitted and chirped impatiently for him to start churning up the soil so that they could go after prey on the ground or on the wing.   I was on the loader with him when the project was nearing completion one day and heard him telling them to wait, he was going to get to their favourite spot soon ...

I asked whether it was customary for him to have conversations with the birds and he frowned and said "Yes of course.   When that's all you've got for hours on end..."   as if it made perfect sense to him...

When the land had been levelled we planted single poles to make it difficult for the badgers to reach, for fixing the hives to.

Someone we knew who used to do beekeeping with his sons was giving it up because the sons were going to university, so we bought all of his used hives and equipment, and set up our wonderful new apiary.

We planted flowering trees and plants and within weeks the first hives were populated.   Unfortunately there is a real unemployment problem among people living in the area and no sooner was there honey, than the trouble started.   We never considered the fact that people would brave African (killer) bees without the necessary smoker and protective wear, but they do.   And we have never harvested a gram of our own honey from this apiary.   

What is needed is a tall pole with a solar panel and alarm system, and a fence to keep animals out, so that when people move into the area we will be alerted by the alarm to take action...   Sigh.   We love our country but it is hard to have to consider security before one can do anything whatsoever always.

Animal, vegetable, miracle

is the most inspirational book I have read in a long time.   Author Barbara Kingsolver has been a favourite since I first read The Poisonwood Bible yonks ago, but who knew?   She is also a consumer with a conscience!   I almost feel as if she should be classed as a non-consumer, having read how they as a family pledged utter self-sustainability for the period of a full year, and the delightful results of said pledge.  

After six months of non-blogging I have been driven to my computer to continue blogging, if that will make a difference to anyone's life who may come across the articles and read them (all the future ones I now have in mind especially!)

I am sure that having come that far, living off the land and by one's own means for a full calendar year, it becomes second nature not to look to supermarket shelves for sustenance anymore, because whatever you are looking at has been grown from hybridised or GM seed, so that it will outlast transportation and the inordinate time spent in packing sheds being washed and handled, and on supermarket shelves, with little regard for taste.   And then it has either been processed, transformed into something different and sometimes unrecognisable (try chocolate coated olives!) transported 100,000 miles, radiated or otherwise preserved, with even less regard for nutritional value than taste.   Having tasted one's own produce, grown from honest seed which is true to how that food looked and tasted 100 years back, and having experienced the energy boost from ingesting such food, and the obvious health benefits, there is no going back.

What am I saying?   I am now more than ever convinced it is the right thing to source and grow heirloom type vegetables, I am looking forward to this year of change, and of growing the old so that it seems brand new...