No sooner had I put up last week’s post than Junia was yelling at me about a “bee ball.”
Behold the bee ball. This is a wild swarm that attached itself to the flame tree at the foot of our driveway.
A few hours and an afternoon deluge later, that swarm was on the ground. (no photo – sorry)
Austin was still at Plantation Island. Junia is too big for the bee suit. Akka has gotten stung too many times and is averse to bees. I am a apiary know-nothing (in fact I’m not even sure about the word “apiary”). BUT – we had a dear guest Dominique who several decades ago was a beekeeper.
So Dominique asked to be allowed to suit up and care for the swarm.
Here he is. Junia took a dozen photos – all from a VERY safe distance.
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The Austin-was-away Gong Show.
First thing I had to do when I returned from Plantation Island but Austin was still there was to remove the eggs labeled “24” from the incubator (that shifts the eggs every few hours) to the hatcher (that leaves the eggs flat and lets the embryos find their air pockets before hatching). I took all five trays from the bottom row of the incubator.
Two days later, chicks are hatching….. but I am also hearing peeps from the incubator
Oops! Missed a tray. Photos not so clear, but there were more than a dozen chicks on the floor of the incubator – fell off the tray two floors up….
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FIJIAN WORD of the Week
Coka (tho-ka). It means diarrhea. I think of coka for two reasons – 1) I was proofreading a friend’s manuscript on local herbs yesterday, and 2) somebody here had coka last night.
Tauvimate means sick. Look at the length of the two words, and I think we know which word they use more…..
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Happy and healthy week, everybody!
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