![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9p1IKk4SFFzMw2Cv4SpDT6_BP2jfqgTumOnUiRxQB0Aigzb8ogGhNSwEIQ1v8Goj0N2fBHIcz1IeQzLBhFhzJsSq4rC5OFZZZEvb9asBWTV7wQL1jtQqKmEJ-Pl8KlKiOjAZR/s320/Aberdeen_Bestiary_Bees.jpg)
The Aberdeen Bestiary, Folio 63r, "Bees make honey and skillful hives"
The bees have been busy, as, well, you know; their fanny-packs full of gold pollen, bellies all swollen and tight as bodhrán drumheads from a surfeit of nectar. They’re fat; it’s time to bring smoke to the hive, set them to drowsing, pry a frame out and open their wax-sealed treasures to pour into new vessels: 5-to-1 water to honey, boil and skim, cool it down, yeast it, wait for it a few weeks 'til it begins to dance and hum the way bees do, the way fingers tapping the bodhrán do, the way we will do once that hydromel's tapped.