Putting it Out to the Universe

We've been keeping bees for about five weeks, now.  We've joined the local beekeeper's group, the Southern Illinois Beekeeping Association, and attended several meetings.  Ruth has taken the Missouri Master Beekeeper's class.  We've acquired four colonies, and continue to learn more and more about, and from, bees.

One downbeat note; Ruth had bought a smoker off of Amazon before we even had bees, and before we knew about a local store for beekeeping supplies, namely Leedle Houme Bees in Mulkeytown, Illinois.  We have used this smoker, three, maybe four times, and then found that this had happened to it:

The staples that hold the bellows together had pulled through the fabric, rendering the smoker all but useless.  We planned to buy another one, locally, at our first opportunity.

Saturday, May 20, was the SIBA field day, a gathering of local beekeepers with vendors and demonstrators.  Ruth was asked the day before to teach a class on soap making, replacing the originally scheduled presenter.  She has taught any number of classes on the subject, but these usually run around four hours; she had fifty minutes for this one.  She did very well.

The day was divided into various classes.  Ruth attended ones on making splits (dividing populous hives into two or more smaller colonies, each of which can then grow), honey and wax harvesting and extraction, while I learned about top-bar hives and treatment-free beekeeping.

Lunch was provided, and at noon we sat down in the extension office with dozens of other hungry beeks.  There was a drawing for door prizes, and a raffle for a complete hive set-up.  We hadn't gotten our raffle tickets yet, so I handed Ruth a ten dollar bill, and she made a last-minute purchase, 3 tickets for $10.00.

They drew numbers for the door prizes, two tables crowded with items donated by local businesses.  There were actually more door prizes than participants, so after they had drawn all the numbers, the dumped the tickets back into the bowl and handed out another round till everything was gone.  How did we do?  They called our number, and sure enough, we won a brand new smoker, donated by The Bee Barn in Paducah, Kentucky.  Ruth pointed out that when our old smoker went kaput, we just put it out to the universe, and the universe responded.

But the universe wasn't done with us, yet.  After all the door prizes were given out, they had the drawing for the hive set-up.  They had one of the children in the group pick a ticket out of the bowl.  Sure enough, we had the winning ticket.  Leedle Houme Bees had donated this hive for the raffle, and for our ten dollars, we won a hive worth $190.00.  We're still pretty amazed by this.  I think the last thing I won was an Egg McMuffin.

So there you have it.  The universe seems to be telling us something.  I think it is that we are supposed to be beekeepers, and to try to be good ones.  We'll let you know.