I've been in the habit recently of popping down to the Apiary to check on what the bees are getting up to after dark.
There's usually a bit of a congregation on the landing board, especially when it's hot.
And if you put your ear to the side of the hive there's a lovely deep resonant sound of 1000s of pairs of wings all abuzz.
The days are not quite as long as they were this time last month but it was still not particularly dark at just after 9pm when I ambled down to the hives to read the bees their bedtime story.
The apiary thermometer was showing 19.9C and it was drizzling with summer rain; it was, in fact, a lovely evening.
All was as expected: the familiar bee party on the landing board was in full swing and there was a sparse but steady stream of late flyers returning back home.
But in addition to that, there was Bella, the cat from next door, perched on top of hive 2, doing a passable impersonation of stout Cortez... silent upon a peak in Darien.
 |
| like stout Cortez... |
She initially looked a bit surprised to see me but pretended, as cats do, that there was nothing out of the ordinary in being perched on top of a pile of boxes containing 40,000 bees and decided that she was quite happy to stay exactly where she was.
Unfortunately, the only camera I had on me was the one on my mobile phone and, as you can see, it struggles a bit in low light. So this lamentably poor photo is the best I could manage.
But at least, albeit incompetently, the moment is preserved on the internet, which, as we all know, is the only thing that counts nowadays.
On reflection though, perhaps Bella's crepuscular hive-sitting behaviour isn't that odd after all.
I considered why she might choose to be up there:
a)
It's nice and high; cats like that.
b)
From the top of that hive (which is currently 2 deeps, 3 shallows, a base, a roof and a hive stand tall) she can see over the apiary's perimeter fence and monitor the activity in her very own 1st floor flat, right next door to Spike Towers.
This allows her to accurately gauge just how distressed her owners are getting when she ignores their attempts to call her in for the night. Cats love doing this.
c)
Hive 2 is situated under a lime tree so that spot is nicely protected from the rain.
d)
40,000 bees in a box will generate some heat; it might be warm up there on the lid, which is something else cats really like.
e)
If she's quiet and respectful on top of that box she won't be seen as a threat. At this time of night the bees are preoccupied with their standard bedtime routine and were probably totally unaware of their crepuscular visitor anyway. So on top of a friendly beebox would be a safe place for a cat to be, the threat of bees deterring any potential enemies.
However, if Bella wants to visit at a time of day when the bees are more active, I suspect that she may want to tread carefully. I know she's taken at least one sting on the mouth in the last couple of weeks.
Generally though at Spike Acres, the cats and bees seem to be cohabiting quite nicely.
It looks as if the cats are pretty respectful and the bees, unless seriously provoked, just get on with their beestuff.
The LandofSpike cats, Biscuit and Freddie, will both occasionally come into the apiary when I'm there but will sensibly keep out of the way of flightpaths and hive entrances.
Bizarrely, WVF (the previous LandofSpike cat) used to enjoy catching and eating bees, which sometimes made her froth at the mouth in rather an alarming fashion.
This frothing didn't deter her in the slightest and she continued to catch, chomp and froth quite regularly.
That concludes the cat anecdotes for the time being; it's 1am and time for bed.
I hope Next Door have managed to persuade Bella to come in by now...
