DON’T LET PIRATES WAYLAY BUSY BEES
I READ a sad story on Facebook the other day, saying that several species of bees were now on the endangered list. If they vanish from the planet, we are likely to lose a number of plants that rely on bees for pollination.
These include many types of fruit tree, so be nice to bees if you want to continue enjoying your daily apple or avocado.
Bees have rather a rough life. There are many predators out there trying to get at them.
Honey badgers rob their hives, several insect-eating birds enjoy an occasional snack of bee and the most devastating enemy of all is the human race, which uses all kinds of chemical warfare to destroy insects, casually killing swarms of valuable bees along with the other goggas.
We forget that any spray that kills a fly or a mosquito also kills a bee.
Long ago, when I was trying to be a farmer, I had eight beehives and managed to collect a reasonable annual honey harvest until my father and brother developed severe allergies to bee stings and the hives had to go.
One of the many hazards in the Karoo world of bees was a mean little wasp called a bee pirate.
These little critters would lurk outside the hives and pounce on any passing bee in order to paralyse it and use it to feed its young.
The bee pirates probably accounted for only one or two bees a day, so it wasn’t a mass slaughter. The problem was that the bees wouldn’t go out to work when the pirates were around.
They’d go on strike and cower in the hive, and this was not good for honey production.
I solved the problem by moving the hives into a shed and giving them an open window through which they could come and go without being aware of pirates outside.
I believed the bees would build up a good turn of speed by the time they shot through the window, making them difficult targets for marauding pirates.
The main thing was that when the bees were unaware of the pirates, honey production went ahead.
It was the threat of pirates, not their actual presence, that hampered production.
In the run-up to the elections, we’re facing scary threats from many of the parties. Most of them, I like to think, are just electioneering hot air and the country will go ahead as usual when the dust settles.
I do feel that politicians should be a little more muted in their wild election rants.
Like those productive bees, there are investors out there who might pump billions into our economy if it were not for the sinister buzzing of the pirate politicians.
We need to get on with running our country, no matter who votes for what party. Last Laugh
A city man was driving in the country and ran over a rooster that was scratching in the road.
He stopped and knocked on the nearest farmhouse door. A big woman opened it.
“I’m terribly sorry ma’am,” said the man. “I ran over your rooster and would like to replace it.”
“Please yourself,” she growled. “The hens are in the back yard.”