Busy as a Bee

Things are really startin' to buzz at Cool Cache Farms, the home of world famous Alaskan peonies.

Hi, there! Jake the Farm Dog here. Well, things are shaping up to be a very "buzzy", oh I mean busy, summer. Last year's bees managed to live to the middle of March this year, but then they died! The learning curve of trying to overwinter bees, when there are eight months of no pollen, is steep! Well, better results this year, we hope. The new honey bees have arrived from the lower 48, thanks to Sarah's Alaska Honey. Wayne has set up two hives of Carniolan bees. I supervised their installation, but doing so is not my favorite activity! When I get around bees, I have this autotomic nervous reaction that can really be unpleasant! Whenever a bee buzzes by my ears, I snap at it. Have you ever caught a bee with your mouth? When you do, it makes jabanero sauce seem like ketchup! Anyway, I managed to get through the experience and only three bees "buzzed" me. And I missed every one of them. Whew! The peonies have made their appearance. We actually saw the first of their crimson shoots the first of May. Wayne thinks the later emergence means we should have peonies to sell by the 10th of July. Now Wayne has turned into a grump! I brought him the Frisbee for him to throw, the other day. It was in the very place where he threw it for me in January. Back then we played for more than a half an hour, and I ran all over the field. Now, he says I might step on the buds and break them off. I don't see why that's a problem. We are probably going to have around 20,000 buds this year, so what's a few broken ones? Well, gotta’ go check on the new baby ducks. I’ll let you know how that goes later. This is Jake the Farm Dog, signing off for now.