CHOTI MAKKHI

 CHOTI MAKKHI

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

12/XII/2022

 

My inquisitiveness keeps me on my toes. The mystery swarming of Honey Bees on our Water Lily Tubs was another one to be solved. One has encountered the Choti Makhi very often pollinating our flowers, but Badi Makhi or the big honey bees were only seen on waterlily tubs.

 

One day, I was watering our neighbours’ pots. They visit occasionally and the ten odd pots have been entrusted to us to be watered. I threw the hose pipe over to water their hedge also, when their neighbour came out requesting me not to sprinkle water as there is a Bee hive in the hedge. A few of them had stung ‘Pari’, her two-year-old daughter. Oh my! I withdrew from there at once.

 

However, I wanted to know why this little child got stung. Did she disturb them? Every day, Pari used to come and water the Banana tree growing astride the hedge. That day she had thrown a mug of water and missed the target. Instead of falling near the banana tree, the bee nest got agitated and she got a few nasty stings. Must have hurt her badly.

 

Having finished watering our own pots, I wandered to check the Hornets nests which one had discovered a few days back. It was to my surprise that the whitish pods in the nest had all popped open. Baby wasps were now on their own.

 

A few adult wasps were still there still guarding their nest. Probably that is their drill, till all the others return after the winter. That is why I was now seeing smaller wasps coming to have a drink once in a while on the tubs. Where had those thousands of adult wasps gone? That mystery needs to be solved.

 

Our other neighbours are NRIs. It has been more than a year since they have visited. The trees in their yard have grown unwieldy. The leaves shed from these trees are covering the floor giving an uncouth look. For me it is gold, as we make leaf compost. The neem leaves are ideal material for it.

 

We requested the horticulture people to groom the trees and clear the debris, which they agreed to. The ‘Mahurat’ of the trimming session was yesterday.

 

As they started clearing the undergrowth one heard the loud hum of numerous bees. They were fully agitated and in attacking mode. However, our horticulture friends had their eyes lit. They spotted a beehive. Off one ran to get a matchbox. The other one covered his face with a piece of cloth. A piece of cardboard carton was lit and extinguished till there was thick white smoke. This was for calming the bees and relaxing them.

 

‘Shahed’ that too of the small bees is supposed to be one of the best. People use it as a ‘Soorma’ in their eyes besides eating it which Mr Bunty explained to me. Katengi tum ko, I said. He denied and cut that whole branch with the massive hive.

 

The portion without honey was discarded and the one which was overflowing was stuffed in a plastic jar. Honey dripped all over this man’s hand and the side of the jar. Some honey fell on the floor and the bees immediately gathered to collect it.

 

Bees sat on Mr Bunty’s face and hands but coolly and calmly he went about extracting honey. Focus shifted from trimming the trees till they got over the excitement of collecting honey. Khajano mil gayo aaj, was what they were saying. It was the purest honey for sure.

 

Then those bees congregated on our Champa tree and clung to each other making more than a foot wide cluster. There were thousands of them. I felt a little sad as they were up stuck from their abode. They hovered around but then settled. This morning they all were gone. However, around 10am they started returning. Probably the Queen decided to get back to a place with least disturbance.

 

Now I know from where these little bees or ‘Choti Shahed ki Makhi’ were finding their way to our water lily tubs. Will Choti Makhi settle once again in our neighbours’ tree? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS