Honey Bees, Ducks, Guru Bhakti and More

Aum Namah Sivaya

Over our monks' weekly retreats (their weekends), they find themselves working on a variety of projects, such as gardening, metal working, extra temple vigils, cooking, woodworking and more. This last retreat we find Iraivan Temple being soda blasted and pressure washed and a new image of Satguru being installed there. We also find monks beekeeping and we meet some of our other wildlife as well. Aum.

Yogi Jayanatha prepares to open our last official beehive (we have many unofficial one in trees buildings), which has gone a long time without inspection

We find him in our outdoor quick-tent shop. He and Dayanatha work to assemble bee boxes.

Here is a bottom board for a new hive

A first coat of bright yellow to easily differentiate between the newer and older boxes

Glossy!

It\

s a lot of work to assemble so many frames. Something our older monks are quite familiar with from their beekeeping days '

The plan is to assess the old hive, give them some new boxes and split the hive into more hives if it\

s strong enough. '

Here it is. Over a decade old and six bee-boxes tall.

It\

s full of friendly little honey bees. But their house is looking a little worn down. '

New digs!

Time to open a big beehive.

Inside we find far too much unused honey and cramped living quarters

This hive is given some new space to grow and half of the population is moved to a new hive

Earlier we set up some new stands on a hillside. Two new hives for now, more to come!

The left hive is empty. Maybe we\

ll catch a wild swarm. The right side has half of the old hive. As long as they have eggs available they can raise their new queen and thrive.'

Out on San Marga we come across our pair of Muscovy ducks. They moved in on their own and are well taken care of in their new sanctuary.

They get fed everyday as Chinnu and the siplis walk by. Here Chinnu gives them some idli

Over at Iraivan Temple, we find it has been soda blasted. This leaves baking soda everywhere.

A good reason to pressure wash everything and make it shine!

With the reflection from the entryway, you can almost see the crystal being there.

looking clean!

Over in the woodshop, Nirvani Tejadevanatha finds an old wooden frame up on a shelf. A good chance to give something a new destiny.

A little trimming

Some assembly

And a little shine...

...creates a big improvement to Satguru\

s picture in Iraivan Temple'

Aum Namah Sivaya!

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