Beeing
Rosanne Daryl Thomas
(Reviewer - Coletta Ollerer)
2002 The Globe Pequot Press
ISBN: 1585747319

Associate Reviewer Coletta Ollerer writes:

Novelist Rosanne Daryl Thomas meets a man at a party who calls himself Farmer Tom. He explains he will be raising some exotic Eastern European berries that, “when crushed and sweetened with honey, made an unusual and unforgettable drink, a nectar worthy of the gods.” (p. 11) She remarks that someday she might want to keep bees & that then she would supply the honey. Tom says start now. He invites her to keep the bees on his land. Her seven year old daughter hears the exchange & becomes very enthusiastic, & Rosanne is on her way.

She starts in March with an order for six living pounds of Italian honeybees. They were to arrive in one month, just time enough to prepare the hives. Page 24 shows a drawing of the design of the hives & what is needed to build them.

She purchases a beesuit, beehat & other necessities &, in April, goes to pick up the bees at the beekeeping supplies store where she meets her most useful asset: the Bee Master. His advice is invaluable in her efforts to succeed.

Three bee hives are settled on Farmer Tom's land facing east near the river & close to some trees. Rosanne becomes obsessed with caring for them. Going about their business, the bees occupy themselves doing what bees do. Rosanne gives the reader a good idea of what is going on & it is fascinating.

“Analysis of bee temperament is pretty irresistible once you have known them as anything other than something to fear or producers of that which you buy at the market and spread on your toast.” (p. 87)

She finds them enchanting. “I would breathe in and in and in, unable to get enough of their mixed flower perfume.” (p. 89) She prepares sugar water for their nourishment until they start collecting nectar on their own. She watches with interest as the bees deposit their load of pollen inside the door of the hive. In the Fall she observes that the color of the gathered pollen changes. ‘Red-amber, marigold-yellow, black and a bright, silvery green.’ (p. 113) Other bees collect & store it.

As the Summer progresses the Bee Master informs her that she needs to provide a honey super to sit atop the deep super (hive body). She needs to install a ‘queen excluder’ so the Queen cannot gain access to lay eggs. The honey manufactured in the honey super will be only for her use.

In addition to the joy she experiences working with the bees, she is forced into a proximity with nature previously unknown to her. She loves it & is dismayed when she returns to the hives one day to find the field in which they sit completely shorn. Farmer Tom had been advised to cut everything back. That & other events motivate her to find another home for her hives. Fall turns to Winter & the bees hunker down. She looks forward to Spring & another round with her bees.

Beeing: Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honeybees is the story of a lady embarking on a new life calling & is fascinating. It reads like a novel & this reviewer wouldn't mind trying it herself. A fun read.

More from Rosanne Daryl Thomas:
Awaiting Grace
The Angel Carver
(01/15/06)

Coletta
2006©Coletta Ollerer
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I have always enjoyed writing. As a teenager I submitted to magazines like Seventeen, & was politely rejected. As a young mother, I had several poems published in The Chicago Tribune. Born in Chicago in 1932, I still live in the area. Since I retired, I have had some success on the Internet with my book reviews, stories & poetry. I enjoy historical fiction mostly, but will read anything uplifting, informative & fun. When I'm not reading & writing, I'm making jewelry, sewing needlepoint, & painting.