Holmes at the Hives

May 22nd is International Sherlock Holmes Day, as it is the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

I celebrated in Holmesian fashion, by tending my bee hives.

In 1903, Sherlock Holmes retired at age 49 to become a beekeeper. 

Conan Doyle records this exchange between Holmes and Watson in His Last Bow:

“’But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the South Downs.’

“‘Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum opus of latter years!’  He picked up the volume from the table and read out the whole title, ‘Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen’.

“‘Alone I did it. Behold, the fruit of the pensive nights and laborious days when I watched the little working gangs as I once watched the criminal world of London.’”