That light would start the bees flying around again. Hoosiers used to rely on the natural bee population in the woods, but growers could suddenly find themselves with almost no apples or with deformed apples because the apple is in the rose family and has five little carpels. All five have to be fertilized. The five little black seeds in there are in a star shape. If you fertilize only three out of the five, you wind up with an apple that looks like somebody smashed it with their fist when it was developing.
Most people think bees suddenly appear when the weather turns balmy.
Oh, they're flying now. Any day when the air temperature rises above 55 degrees, they're out collecting pollen from maple trees that are blooming now. When Hegeman is not looking out for the welfare of his bees and garnering honey from the hives, he is taking an intensive look at bacterial physiology. I study the way organic compounds that are rather odd in structure or rare in nature are broken down by bacteria.