Ever been told to mind your own beeswax? I personally haven't, but that's a REAL thing beeswax! Who knew? Being a missionary has taken me many places I never thought I would go, Africa, Haiti, Iowa City (where if you're not wearing your seat belt as a passenger they can pull you over JUST for that and ticket you for $127) and just this week it's taken me to Bee Keeping Class!I 'll go ahead and tell you that my instructor is a racist AND against immigration!
He said and I quote:
"Germans are pretty much no good and the Italians took them out out, the Italians are workhorses, but they're prone to robbing and don't much care for winter, the Carniolas or the 'dark browns' are prone to swarming, the Caucasians don't winter well at all & are pretty passive and not very popular. The Russians winter well, but they have quite the bipolar disposition and have a high tendency of swarming. The Minnesotans are very hygienic, winter well, but have a highly variable temperament and swarm tendency, and the survivors well they have an excellent survivor rate. (I really wrote that down!) It's bad to mix races because you never know what you're going to get, they'll have their own set of problems. And it's terrible to bring any in from other countries the Africans are killers and on top of that they bring in disease!"
Okay so he was talking about bees, but I kept thinking he's never saying the word BEE so if someone is out in the hall and they're hearing this... well, I thought it was real funny!
I found the class very helpful and I found finding a good bee is liking finding a good man! We're told to look for in a good BEE:
Good Survival Rate
Gentle Disposition
Honey Production
Low Swarming tendency
Good spring build up
Winter hardiness
Hygienic behavior
Mite and disease resistance
Low robbing propensity
** Unfortunately, no bee has 100% of these traits and I'm confident at 35 and single that no man does either. Sigh!
But he advised us well, "Don't judge a breed of bee by just one hive!" And all the AG pastors said Amen!
Oh and why we're talking about / to pastors: It is hard for the mind to absorb what the seat can't endure. (this has nothing to do with bees)
We can learn A LOT from bees: They are truly social, they take care of each others young, they divide and conquer the labor, they work with overlapping generations. Ah what a church that would be?!
And if all that wasn't fascinating enough! Then they start to tell me about this Queen B! I wish I had taken the name of everyone who ever introduced me as the Queen B (I now know that this is NOT a compliment!) Seriously, she's a piece of work. 95% of your hive is going to be female worker bees (in other words WATCH OUT! 95% of the hive can sting you!) It is 5% drones, which is the male B whose sole goal in life is to mate with the Queen B and then when they finally get to do that they die from it! They don't help with anything in the hive and then they are kicked out in the winter time. (Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up!) The workers bees do all the house keeping, care for the young, gather and store, and make the beeswax and honey comb! AND take care of the QUEEN B! Who from birth is a B, seriously, there may be a half dozen queen bees developing, but the first one to hatch immediately goes and kills off the unhatched ones, she's fed and cleaned and served Royal Jelly by the worker bees, her pheromones CONTROL the reproduction of all the other bees, AND decide whether or not a developing bee will be male or female. She controls the entire behavior of the hive. And there is only ONE.
You change the temperament of a hive by Re-Queening it! Hmmm.... my co-worker said that the instructor should have followed that up by, "Do not try this at home!" Seriously though homes aside, who's the Queen B in the areas of your life? Who's controlling the temperament of the room?
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