[Assam] A Rebellion of my Own

[kamal deka]

>>>Hehehe!  Maybe, just maybe, some apiarist someday may follow in the
footsteps of 'Robert The Bruce' & his spider. And then again, if wishes were<<<

RS,
The idiom " If wishes were horses" reminds me of a nursery rhyme that
goes 'If wishes were horses,beggars would ride:If turnips were
watches, I would wear one by my side"
The Bruce story is really motivating.I had actually seen his statue at
the entrance of Edinburg castle,just a mile away from Edinburg
University.The bee story is equally illuminating.I hope,it will put
bee in someone's bonnet.
Now,turning my attention towards ' PC', 'Delhi' et al,those are truly
an example of peerless writing skill!!
And I have found the perfect use for those abrasive stuffs. I wad it
up and use it as backing when I patch holes in my wall. I feel a
little guilty about subjecting my termites to those trashy content,
but then again,they're only termites.
Enjoy your holiday in epic proportion.
KJD

On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 2:15 AM, Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:
> That is very interesting experiment & nice story, C'da.
>
>>Obviously, for some inexplicable reason, the workers went into a full-blown
> rebellion, killed >the queen and took over egg-laying. I had a Maoist
> rebellion on my own hands!
>
> Hehehe!  Maybe, just maybe, some apiarist someday may follow in the
> footsteps of 'Robert The Bruce' & his spider. And then again, if wishes were
> horses.... :-).
>
> And the only thing I know of bees is to make sure they ain't "Africanized"
> bees
> ... ooops! was that too insensitive, or not PC?  And I am not talking
> about that crafty PC in Delhi :-)
>
> Well, bye for now, we are out of town for the moment, you know, enjoying all
> the simple pleasures that Capitalism dishes out to even common folks like
> us......
>
> --Ram
> .
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 3:21 PM, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Not to make light of the struggles of the oppressed in India's heartland
>> and frontiers, but I have found myself
>> with sort of a Maoist rebellion right here in the land of capitalism :-).
>>
>> After a number of years of mulling, I have decided to take the plunge into
>> bee-keeping this year. In February  I attended a full day
>> seminar on bee-keeping, while traveling in Assam in March ordered bee
>> packages and queens via the internet and thereafter attended monthly
>> meetings, on-hands training sessions on assembling hives, comb frames,
>> installing bee packages and queens into hives, periodic checking, feeding,
>> pest control etc. etc. Finally on April 17 we took delivery of two packages
>> of bees each weighing about 2lbs. (about 6,000 bees) and a queen, for two
>> hives.
>> It is recommended that a newbie bee-keeper start with two hives, just so if
>> one becomes dysfunctional or diseased, one can remain to overwinter
>> and produce honey next year.
>>
>> Immediately  installing the packages into the hive boxes, the worker bees
>> go into action, drawing combs in the frames for the queen to lay eggs
>> and start building the colony with worker bees. A good queen will lay eggs
>> primarily to produce the female workers and  perhaps a few DRONES ( males)
>> here and there. The queen starts laying eggs within three days, the eggs
>> hatch in another three, the cells are capped in eight days and adults emerge
>> in sixteen days and the colony begins to build.
>>
>> Things were going quite smoothly, until, after sixteen days of installing
>> the two packages in the hives, I discovered that in one of the hives
>> there were only DRONES being produced, no workers, and thus a recipe for
>> imminent demise of the colony. The drone cells are distinctively larger than
>> the worker cells and easily identified. It did not seem right, but I thought
>> it was just a little aberration. About a week later an e-mail came in from
>> our bee-keeping organization announcing the next seminar where an expert was
>> going to discuss various issues, INCLUDING problems such as drone-laying
>> queens and
>> egg-laying worker colonies.
>>
>> A warning flare went up in my mind! There are such things as a
>> dysfunctional queen that produces only drones ? Or a colony taken over by
>> the workers
>> who lay their own eggs? Oh no!! Why me I thought.
>>
>> Ten days after I first saw the drone cells in my hive, I re-inspected the
>> defective hive to confirm that there were no worker cells, only drones, just
>> before going to attend the seminar. After a number of questions thrown at
>> the speakers and a re-re-inspection of the problem hive the next day, I
>> confirmed that the colony
>> did not have a queen and that workers were laying eggs, which can only
>> produce drones.
>>
>> Obviously, for some inexplicable reason, the workers went into a full-blown
>> rebellion, killed the queen and took over egg-laying. I had a Maoist
>> rebellion on my own hands!
>>
>> Now what? I thought of calling PC. But that was not a good idea. He would
>> probably say-" No discussions without them first laying down their arms"  or
>> recommend calling in the air-force. MMS, perhaps? Naah, he will probably say
>> that there is nothing that could not be solved within the democratic
>> process! No use there either.
>>
>> Well, how about  Assamnet law-and-order advocates?  Any help here :-)?
>>
>> Stay tuned for Chapter II.
>>
>> cm
>>
>>
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>>
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