The Bee Box  Chaitanyamoi Chetia   © Copyright 2021 by Chaitanyamoi Chetia

Image by Mari Loli from Pixabay

When he felt it necessary to insert an additional brood frame in the upper chamber of the bee box, he would insert a brood frame carefully. Doing such things gave him blessedness; after that he would leave the place and again sat on the cane chair for a while with sparkling eyes on his face and vivacity on his mouth. When he would see one brood frame in the upper chamber of the bee box became loosed and separated because of the rusted nail that fixed the wooden brood frame, he would pin a new nail by hammering; after that he would again insert the brood frame in the upper chamber of the bee box. Carrying out these things gave him delight, he would again recline on the cane chair stretching his legs with delirium on his face.

Sitting on the chair he would gaze at the bee box and at the never ending mustard flowers spread everywhere in the outside field; he saw the bees collecting pollens from the flowers and getting inside the bee box. While he walked on the mustard flower garden in the afternoon he would see the busy bees collecting pollens all the time till the sky became dark. At such time, when the sky became dark, and warm orange tinge fell on the sky, he would pause his walking further and would return home. Afternoon stroll gave him delirium, he would again give a look at the bee box and with content he would get inside and start reading his books in elation.

When the flowers of the never ending mustard plants ceased to bloom, and the bees entered every time into the box without collecting yellowish pollen in their legs, his face showed a dismal mood; he found contentment by putting a lump of jaggery near the tiny passage way of the bee entrance. After an hour, the bees would surround the jaggery from all sides flying near it and staying near it and then entering into the box. Such jovial things that he did with the bees made him perky; he would sit on the reading table and read aloud his lessons in a pleasant voice and his face became mirthful.

Some predators of the bees like the small narrow bodied wasps and hornets disturbed the bees by flying near the box, and giving every effort to enter inside the box.

“I will have to disperse these enemies of the bees,” Bijit said when he saw one hornet disturbing the bees near the box. He saw the hornet while his eyes went to the box while reclining on the cane chair. He stood up from the chair and came to the box; he took a twig that lay on the ground. He clasped it in his hand and touched the hornet every time near the bee box till it went away. He became ecstatic after the predator of the bees fled away and he came to the cane chair in exuberance reclining his body and spreading his legs.

The bee hive box had a few split on the upper chamber of the bee box for which during heavy rain, water drops entered the box. When heavy rain continued for many weeks water drops entered the interior of the box and water touched the brood frames, and the bees and the honeys. He remained perplexed for this reason; with a downcast mood he would come to his table and he would not read books for many hours. He sat in the cane chair outside in the afternoon in melancholy, his dismal mind did not allow him to stroll in the mustard plants where the bees collected pollen from the blooming flowers. In forlorn he would sit on the cane chair and thought how he could eradicate the split of the upper chamber of the box.

“I will have to cap the split of the upper chamber,” he wondered in regret, and his face showed discomfort.

“I shall change the place of the bee hive to the corner of a wall under a tin shade,” he said, “after that I shall nail the split with fine sticks of cane and nail them.”

He labelled the soil near the corner of the wall under a shade with a hoe. He surfaced the soil evenly, and his agony that the bees were disturbed during heavy downpour was still on his face. In a splendid way he hid the split of the upper chamber with fine sticks of cane and nailed it with a hammer. He was so grief stricken that he did all these things silently with a gloomy face.

While placing the upper chamber of the bee box after the nailing and hiding the split was completed; his elbow suddenly knocked the bee box with a heavy sound and the bee box tumbled on the ground and the colony of bees became restless and furious and surrounded him everywhere near his body. The infuriated bees surrounded him from all the sides of his body, flying near his dusky hair, trying to sting anywhere on his face, in his ears; he was running to the cane chair, a swarm of bees chased him there; five bees stung him in his neck near his collar shirt, in his hand, and in his forehead; he screamed as pain became unbearable for him. He became cheerless immediately; the sore stinging made him bereaved; the stingers looked very tiny, but its pain was unbearable. The stingers remained in his face and neck for many minutes till he removed them with his fingers one by one. His cheerful face became dejected; the face and neck in his body where the bees had stung became swollen and reddish. With a mournful face he sat silently on the cane chair, and sometimes throbbing; he adjourned his afternoon walk to the mustard plantations for the ache spreading in his whole body.

But he was happy that the split in the upper chamber of the bee box where water entered inside during heavy downpour had been closed with cane straps. His distressed body again became sparkling after the ache disappeared slowly.

After sometime he came to the bee hive box wearing a bee keeping jacket and gloves in his hands and lifted the bee hive box from the ground to the tin shade where he prepared the area with a hoe. After sometime, the bees again started entering the bee hive with yellowish pollens in their legs. He became mirthful that the bees again have been collecting pollens from the mustard plants as before. His gloomy face became cheerful, he came to the cane chair and sat down and felt he was in seventh heaven. His blessedness in his face made him read his books in sincerity, his mirthful mind made him engrossed in his text books for more minutes, and he became cheerful looking at the bee hive.