The center of the universe

-Posted by Isaac

You know, this ain't so bad.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it appears that God still loves the Bible Belt. At least right now. Whereas I spend about 50 weeks a year pining for the Rocky Mountains, we have now come to this, the blissful two weeks here in central Ohio where I can breath deep and just enjoy the place. It's wonderful to be living. And for 1/20th of the year, it's wonderful to be living right here! Smack dab in the center of the universe.

The honeysuckle has bloomed! The black locust has bloomed! The heat is here to stay! The honey flow is on!

The nucs are sold! (Almost.) The bees are home from the apples!

A few days ago Maizy helped me go get the last load.

And it doesn't hurt to treat your free help to some awesome gas station junk food.

No sooner did we set those bees down, we looked around and had to start supering. My favorite honey maker was reaching bloom.

I'm in love with this tree. Is it possible to love a tree? If it is, the black locust would have my heart. It's both a honey maker and a thing of beauty. I've fallen so head over heels that I've planted some 700 saplings over the last decade.

We're starting to see a lot of bloom off the oldest.

And it only gets better. When they reach 30, 40, 50 years old, they don't even bother with leaves. Their spring foliage is nothing but white tumbling flowers. 

Tell me that's not a thing of beauty?? Especially if you're a bee. 

I love them up close and I love them from afar.

If you happen to be on I71 heading down to Cincinnati, take a look around. The forested countryside is glowing with pockets of black locust. It's a two week wonderland.

And you can almost set you watch to it-- swarm season has commenced. With the one-two nectar punch of locust and honeysuckle, the bees are plugging their brood nest and running out of space. This means swarming in short order.

I caught a couple this week... from my own hives. 

One of them decided to be cocky and hang around the farmstand a while.

Then it decided to hang on the farmstand.

Easy pickins.

Luckily that happened the day before all the kids came over. This was the week for the annual kindergarten and fifth grade Honeyrun Farm field trips.

A thrilling time for all. (Except me. Some of the time.) Jayne, as you may have expected, does all the coordinating, set-up and leg work. 

And the animals provide many time killing distractions. We start with the dog. Then the cats. Then the goats, the chickens, the ducks...

and finally make it to the marquee event: the bees.

The bees and the trees. I tend to let my excitement show when diving into this wonderful universe, but I realize in the end I'll never compete with Lucky Dog. Or even the ducks.

The school is only a half mile away, so it's a walking field trip. At the end of the day I can only hope my excitement over locust trees fell on a few receptive ears. Maybe somebody will look up any see those big white flowers waving goodbye. 

Maybe they'll look back one day and recall a time when the world was perfect.