Bee Keeping with Friends

A few weeks ago Yvette and I went over to Chris and Gretchen's farm to ride dirt bikes and they had multiple bee boxes in the middle of their property. I remember when I was a kid seeing my neighbor harvesting honey in their garage and it fascinated me then, although I was too young to really understand what I was witnessing, it still left a lasting impact on me.

I begged and begged Gretchen to show me the hives and teach me more about the process. Luckily she needed to check on how one of the hives was doing after it "swarmed" weeks prior. 

The first thing Gretchen did was she took some cardboard and paper and put it in her smoker. The point of the smoker is to trick the bees into thinking that there is a fire nearby, so they retreat back into the hive and they move slower with the carbon monoxide in the smoke. They become more docile for sure.

Although not pictured, Chris was standing nearby to help his wife out moving the covers and things, but Chris was not wearing a bee suit at all! I don't know if it was his calming energy or his confidence, but it showed me that if you respect the bees, and move with slow calculated movements you should not be bothered by the bees. 

The first box that Gretchen opened was healthy, but did not show that much productivity. 

You can see that these bees had a long while before filling up all of the trays.

Gretchen cleans off the top of the dividers before replacing the top cover and then the bees will remain untouched for another few weeks to keep working.

The most interesting hive was the last box Gretchen opened. The bees were so productive they actually sealed the box shut with a complete honeycomb divider that they produced! Talk about productive bees! 

Gretchen told us that most of these honeycombs were filled with brood and honey that would be left for the bees. This was news to me, my preconceived belief was any of the honey was edible, I didn't even consider the brood (baby bees). 

The Queen lays her eggs in honeycombs and it gets sealed with wax. Once the larvae is mature it pops out of the honey comb and becomes either a drone or honey bee. Obviously we wouldn't want to eat one of those!

At the end of the day we got just a little honey to try. This honey was free from brood and it was the most delicious honey I have ever had!

The honey was so good and sweet! Yvette and I only had a little bit at the farm, and we completely forgot to take the rest home! We are still talking about how we forgot the honey! 

One day we hope to have some bees of our own. I think its important to learn more about them because everything in this world is interconnected in some way. If the bees go extinct, we are not long after. Seeing these bee boxes reminded me of a time where I used to collect caterpillars and bugs and show my grandparents, who I am sure were not as excited to look at what I saw. That boyish wonder and interest in learning about nature is something I have really missed lately. I guess everyone goes through changes when you have to go to school, get a job, have responsibilities, but I want to challenge you all to go outside, make a discovery, explore a new place, learn something new, and come back and tell me all about it.

Stay tuned!