Crunch time

4/30/06 and tomorrow night is a meeting to decide whether a beekeeping ordinance will be imposed. I'd like to answer a few questions that have come up. Exhibit A: "If bees are safe, why do beekeepers wear those protective veils?" This is a stupid question, in my opinion, and only deserves a stupid answer. If someone ripped the walls of your house out of the ground and peered closely at you, wouldn't you be mad??? Bees are like that too. (Previous sentence in a Kindergarten Lady voice.) The main reason that a bee might sting is that it feels that the hive is being threatened. When the beekeeper opens a hive...hey presto! It could be perceived as a threat! And since it presumably hurts to be stung in the face, beekeepers wear veils. Veils are like fire extinguishers; you hope to never need them, but you have them just in case. And on that note, I'm off to stock up on pressurized CO2 canisters.

Yours truly,

Jezaib.

Hey everyone, update. The online petition is at http://www.petitiononline.com/gr8tbees/petition.html. We've got upwards of 70 signatures so far. Go there if you can.

First encounter, 4/14/06.

You may know me as Jezaib for now. I am just a freshman at Evanston Township High School who wants to keep bees. I will get them sometime next week if all goes well. My next door neighbors, however, are dead-set against them. (Ignorant of bees other than that they can sting, of course.) Since good ol' Evanston has no laws whatsoever concerning bees or beekeeping, they have done their best to sic the city on us. They wish. A meeting has been scheduled for Monday, May 1st at 7 PM in case you want to attend. It's at the Evanston Civic Center, which is on Ridge north of Simpson, in case you want to know where to attend. The meeting is to discuss whether or not Evanston will make any laws concerning beekeeping. So you know why to attend. Ba-dum-bum. (I am affiliated with an online petition called gr8tbees at onlinepetition.com--please visit it!) Bees are, by the way, necessary for the fruition of our many backyard gardens.

Bees are estimated to directly or indirectly produce over a third of the food we eat.

Please support us all in this bee issue. Signing off, more news to follow as events warrant.